


Poisoned Love

by Spunky0ne



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2017-12-14 05:35:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spunky0ne/pseuds/Spunky0ne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the darkness of Itamigiri, Tetsuya is awakened sexually by his dangerous and sometimes cruel elder cousin. But what grows between the two is more than they know, and years later, it brings them together again unexpectedly. But where is the line between love and cruelty, and can Orochi learn to love Tetsuya, or will he lose the only person to ever love him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Black Heart and Blacker Soul

Poisoned Love

_A request by Lovise Polaris for a dark themed story of true love that surprises the wicked Orochi and his gentler cousin, Tetsuya._

XXXXXXXXXX

_I am frightened._

_I have lived in the same dark, cold cell for as long as I can remember. I have only a few flashes of memory of being with my mother, before I was old enough that they took me from her and placed me in the care of my cellmate, Naoki._

_I was lucky._

_Some cellmates are cruel. But Naoki is gentle and kind. And even though he cannot stop the evil thing that will happen to me today, he made sure that the first person to lie with me, would take me gently. This way, I know what love is supposed to feel like._

_Because what will happen today when Orochi-sama calls for me is not love, nor anything like it._

_Orochi-sama is cruel, and not like a person, but a snake._

_His love..._

_is poison._

XXXXXXXXXX

"Leave him and go."

Tetsuya shivered at the dead calm sound of Orochi's voice as it floated across the room from where his cousin sat at his desk, facing away from them. He scratched at the paper in front of him as the guard left Tetsuya standing and quivering softly in the entry to his quarters.

Tetsuya swallowed hard, his eyes taking in the expensive decor in the room. The furniture was new, and smelled richly of fine oak. The dark colors everywhere were carefully matched. The linens on the bed looked crisp and fastidiously pressed, and the blankets looked thick and warm. He was sure that if he hadn't been so scared at what the young man was about to do to him, he would have loved spending ten minutes in such a place, that was so much warmer, and smelled so much better than the dank and dreary confines of his cell.

"Well then, you are Tetsuya?"

"I am Kuchiki Tetsuya," he confirmed, trying to sound calmer than he felt.

He swallowed nervously at the glare he received in return.

"You are just Tetsuya," his cousin told him, "Mixed bloods do not have any more right to the names of the noble families as to the power they steal from us. You will simply be Tetsuya and I am Orochi-sama."

"Hai, Orochi-sama," Tetsuya said, bowing his head and finding it a relief to escape those cold, black eyes for a moment.

He caught his breath in surprise as Orochi's surprisingly warm hand slipped under his chin and raised it so that he was looking into the young man's eyes again.

"Are you afraid?" he asked, studying Tetsuya's white face intently.

"Who would not be?" Tetsuya responded, trying hard to keep from shivering, "Orochi-sama is said to be very cruel."

"Is that so?" Orochi asked, the ghost of a smile touching his lips, "Why is that? What have you heard?"

"I...I don't know," Tetsuya said, losing his nerve and trying to look away again, only to have his face captured and directed again to meet Orochi's dark, dangerous eyes, "Different things."

"You are afraid, and with good reason," Orochi told him, his voice still chillingly calm, "When I am not pleased with someone, I do make them hurt for it. But...if you are obedient, if you do everything that I tell you to, then you have nothing to fear, Tetsuya."

"Y-yes, sir."

Orochi's eyes darkened, and Tetsuya nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Yes, Orochi-sama," he corrected himself.

"Very well," said Orochi, moving in close to him, "I understand it is your birthday."

"Yes, Orochi-sama," Tetsuya answered, flinching as he felt the warmth of the other man on his already blushing face.

"You are lovely, for a mixed blood. You obviously stole your looks from my relative, Takao. You look very much like him."

Tetsuya wasn't sure whether to thank him, or to apologize, so he only remained silent and gazed back at Orochi steadily.

"Even though that comely face of yours is stolen, and your body is an abomination to the noble clans, you are still a living, breathing soul, so we need to find a use for you. Because of that, you will serve me. Whenever I send for you, you will come. Whatever I ask of you, you will do...even if it hurts, ne Tetsuya?"

Tetsuya's lips moved, but his voice refused to sound. Orochi's lips curved upward slightly, and his eyes glinted in anticipation.

"Go into the bathroom and wash that filth off of your body. Before you are with me, you will always go and wash yourself. I won't be with something that smells poorly."

"Yes, Orochi-sama," Tetsuya managed, slipping by him and fleeing into the bathroom.

He stood inside the bathroom, panting and shaking all over. But knowing that his cousin was not terribly patient, he forced himself to walk to the shower, where he turned on the water, then froze, staring.

He felt warmth touch his face and steam floated out from the falling streams of water. He reached out and touched it, then reeled with how wonderfully hot and comfortable it felt. It was easy then to slip in under the water and let it blaze onto skin that had only ever known water and stone that were icy and made him shiver. He breathed in the warm vapors and closed his eyes, savoring the comfort of being warm all through.

He jumped back in surprise, gasping as a hand touched his shoulder.

"Here," Orochi said, handing him a small bar of soap, "Don't use mine."

"Y-yes, Orochi-sama," he said, accepting the soap and proceeding to wash himself thoroughly.

And even knowing what his cousin was going to do to him, he couldn't help but love the scent of the fine soap, the feel of the hot water splashing down onto his bare skin and the sensation of being wholly clean, for the first time that he could remember. He sighed softly, scrubbing himself until his skin stung, breathing in the smell of the soap that clung to him, even after he washed it off.

"That's long enough," Orochi said, taking him by the arm and pulling him out from under the water.

He turned the water off, then handed Tetsuya a clean towel.

"Dry off and put that on."

Tetsuya began to dry himself, but paused and stared at the fine, beautiful blue yukata that waited on the wall hook in front of him.

"You like it?" Orochi asked, "I thought that it would match your eyes. You will wear this whenever you come to me. It is one of the privileges of being mine. I hope you like it."

"I...I've never worn anything like that before," Tetsuya whispered, reaching out to touch the silken material with tentative fingers.

He shuddered as Orochi pressed up against his bare back and wrapped possessive arms around him.

"I imagine not. And you will not, except when you are here."

Tetsuya continued to dry himself, his skin flushed, not just from the hot water, but in anticipation of what the other young man would do to him. Orochi remained quiet, watching as Tetsuya's still softly shaking hands dutifully rubbed the towel over his wet skin. He could have sworn that he could feel the black eyes burning into his back, raking down the length of his torso and feasting on his soft, round bottom. He barely kept from crying out as Orochi's hand stole the towel from his, and his cousin rubbed the towel over his shoulders, then turned him and dried his chest, lingering teasingly over his nipples, then looking into his eyes as he slowly dried the younger man's genitals.

Tetsuya's heart pounded wildly and adrenaline coursed through his veins, making him feel like he might jump out of his skin. The feeling only increased and sharpened as Orochi dropped the towel onto the sink and reached around Tetsuya to take the yukata from it's hook. As he leaned forward, he pressed up against Tetsuya's body, teasing the younger man with the feel of his already aroused member that touched Tetsuya's through Orochi's clothes. Tetsuya swallowed hard, wondering how much more his skin could blush. His breath left him as the fine, silken material fell around his shoulders, and he slipped his arms into the sleeves. Orochi left the front of the yukata open and motioned for Tetsuya to walk back out into the bedroom. On shaky legs, Tetsuya complied, his mind going numb as he stumbled forward, anticipating that their interaction was about to get more painful.

He stopped a few steps shy of the bed as he spotted the leather restraints that awaited him. His breath shortened, making him sway dizzily, then Orochi shoved him roughly, and he came down hard onto the bed on his back. He clenched his jaw to keep from crying out as Orochi's strong body fell onto his, the dark, predatory eyes sparking as their bodies crashed together. His head spinning madly, Tetsuya held on to enough of his will to resolve not to make a sound as Orochi's commanding hands grabbed his wrists, one by one, then his ankles, methodically binding each into the restraints. Then, he rested his body again on top of Tetsuya's, looking down into his frightened eyes, enjoying the fast beating of the younger man's heart, and feeling his already hardened cock swell and leak in anticipation.

"I won't lie to you," he said, sliding his hands up Tetsuya's arms, then caressing the bonds that held them, "I enjoy some pain with pleasure. This is why you have heard it said that I am a cruel man, Tetsuya. They don't understand. Pain doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can take you beyond pleasure. But, you will see what I mean."

Tetsuya only gazed up at him silently as Orochi's eyes flickered with power and he whispered a soft command. His eyes flashed for a moment, then Tetsuya heard a soft, hissing sound, and quivered, crying out involuntarily as four smooth, reptilian bodies slithered up his torso, one winding around each arm and leg. Orochi observed his spooked reaction approvingly. And whatever his intentions had been, Tetsuya couldn't keep from shaking at the sight of the oddly beautiful, black snakes as they turned their heads and glared hypnotically into his eyes. He wanted to look away, but found himself frozen by those depthless, black orbs, unable to move as Orochi moved his hips, rubbing his thick, damp erection against Tetsuya's, which, despite the terror coursing through his veins, was also reacting with surprising vigor.

"There, you see," Orochi breathed hotly in his ear, "You are afraid, but your body knows it is about to experience something new and earthshakingly intense. But we don't want you to climax too soon. No. And in fact, you will not climax until you have my permission to do so."

Tetsuya jumped and gasped in distress as he felt something slide on to his aroused length. At first, he feared that it would be too tight and damage him, but as Orochi's hand wrapped around him and stroked him somewhat roughly, the ring, though restrictive, did not become painful. But far worse than the uncomfortable feel of the device, was the growing pain of being forcibly held back from climax.

"Pleasure is a privilege you must earn," Orochi told him, teasing his already sore nipples, then his aching genitals with rough, invasive caresses, "The more you please me, the sooner I will allow you to feel good too. Do you understand, half-blood?"

"Y-y...yes, Orochi-sama," Tetsuya groaned, his eyelids fluttering as the uncomfortable feeling of need inside him increased.

"Good."

Orochi adjusted the restraints enough to allow him to turn onto his hands and knees. Then, he knelt in front of Tetsuya, sliding his arms around him tightly, and plunging into his mouth. Tetsuya's hands clenched within the restraints as his cousin's tongue thrust in between his parted lips and penetrated the depths of the younger man's mouth, aggressively exploring him, as his hands continued to grope at his tormented penis. A gasp of pain escaped him as Orochi forced his way in deeper, making his mouth open uncomfortably wide, and nearly choking him before breaking away and traveling down the sweet flesh of his throat. Tetsuya turned his head away, but found it captured and his eyes returned to Orochi's penetrating gaze as their interaction continued.

Orochi leaned back slightly and spread his thighs, licking his fingers, then stroking his thick erection. His other hand curled around the back of Tetsuya's neck, pulling him down and guiding his lips to the dripping head. He squeezed out more of the pearly fluid and rubbed it slowly up and down the long, flushed shaft.

"Go on," he said in a deeper, hungrier tone, "Put it in your mouth."

Tetsuya froze, loosing a frightened whimper as Orochi's scent drifted across his senses, making his own cock twitch in defiance of his fears.

"Yes, I see your body wants this," Orochi teased him, "Taste it. It doesn't taste bad, and if you do a good job of sucking me, then I will let you come after I have been sated."

He tried then to move forward, but felt fear rise up like a wall in front of him. He felt the snakes that were curled around his wrists tighten painfully. Then, the sting of fangs shocked his skin and he cried out in surprise.

"Obey me at once," Orochi said, more threateningly, "Put it in your mouth now, or I will punish you, Tetsuya. And then, you will do it anyway!"

Given no other choice, he moved forward, touching his trembling lips to the slick head and then running his tongue over the area. Orochi moaned contentedly at the sensation, and pushed his cock deeper into the younger man's mouth, keeping his fingers entangled in Tetsuya's hair and encouraging the up and down motion of his head.

"Suck harder," Orochi panted, thrusting into his mouth and watching him closely.

It didn't take him long, looking down at Tetsuya's lovely, tormented face and watching that pretty, pouting mouth slide up and down his glistening cock before he felt the approach of climax.

"Faster..." he panted breathlessly, nearly choking Tetsuya as he penetrated deeply and held himself inside Tetsuya's mouth, shuddering as pleasure swept over him and he loosed his seed in long spurts, into the younger man's mouth and throat.

Tetsuya choked and broke free of him, coughing and gagging as Orochi watched.

"Don't worry. You will get better with practice. Now, lie down on your back again."

He didn't wait for Tetsuya to comply, but shoved him down and tightened the restraints to that he could not twist away. Then, he knelt between the younger man's thighs, forcing them wide and commencing a slow assault of the area. His insatiable mouth devoured the soft skin of Tetsuya's inner thighs, making the younger man moan and thrash as he closed in on his deeply flushed privates. He teased the soft sac with mercilessly slow caresses, then met Tetsuya's widened eyes and gave his tormented member a long, lingering lick. He wrapped that hot, marauding mouth around the piqued head, sank down partway, then surprised his cousin with wetted fingers that teased his entrance. Tetsuya gasped, and instinctively tried to pull away, but couldn't move enough to escape. The binding snakes, stung his wrists and ankles with punishing strikes, dragging a sobbing gasp from him that was half pain and half intense, aching need for completion.

Orochi smiled at him slyly and pushed a finger inside him, continuing the teasing assault on his inflamed erection as he prepared the younger man for their coupling. Tetsuya was quick to note that he spent less time and used less care in the preparation than Naoki had in their secret tryst. And all too soon, he lifted himself, and pulling on something attached to Tetsuya's bindings, dragged him to his knees and pulled his bound hands up above his head to fix him in place.

"What are you doing, Orochi-sama?" Tetsuya cried.

A shiver went through him as Orochi pressed up against his back, his thick, reawakened hardness rubbing against the younger man's bare bottom. Tetsuya gasped, and his heart raced painfully faster as the silken tie was removed slowly from his opened yukata and slipped around his head to cover his eyes.

"I will just let you wonder," Orochi answered, nipping at his ear, "But I don't think you can even imagine what I am about to do to you."

"Orochi-sama, please stop. I don't think I can..."

"Shh, of course you can. You are a good, obedient slave, Tetsuya. You have behaved very well, and I promise you, your reward is coming."

"O-orochi-ama!"

Tetsuya gave another gasping cry as the snakes' fangs punished his outburst, then reeled as Orochi's hands reached around from where he was pressed up against the younger man's back and slid slowly down his torso, pausing to stroke his now intensely aroused penis.

"Ah!"

He tried to remain quiet, but couldn't hold back a howl of distress as Orochi rubbed the wet head of his returned erection teasingly around Tetsuya's entrance. He positioned himself carefully, holding on to Tetsuya's hips to keep him in place, then he bit down hard on the younger man's shoulder and at the same time, thrust hard into him.

Tetsuya couldn't help but scream, more from terror than from pain. He thought he might lose consciousness, but at the edges of sensation suddenly found Orochi's deep voice pulling him back into awareness.

"Stay with me."

The words sounded oddly out of place and gently spoken, considering cool, methodical nature in his treatment of his cousin up to that point. And Tetsuya registered somewhere in his spinning mind that Orochi's hands had taken on more care. He clenched Tetsuya's hips possessively, his chin rested on his cousin's shoulder and his face pressed lightly to Tetsuya's sweating cheek as his hips moved and he penetrated his cousin deeply. And despite his considerable fears, Tetsuya was strangely touched by the fast beating of the other man's heart against his back, the feeling of that other body wrapped tightly around his, and the low, erotic sounds his elder cousin was making.

"Orochi-s..."

The bindings on him shattered suddenly, and he fell down onto his stomach on the bed, Orochi still pressed to his back and moving faster, thrusting in deeper, until he found the sensitive nerves inside him and struck them several times in quick succession, making Tetsuya scream blindly as the binding ring stopped him, suspended at the edges of oblivion.

"Orochi-sama, please!" he sobbed.

He registered Orochi's soft, amused laugh, then felt the offending ring slide off of his tortured member, freeing him suddenly and making him raise his hips hungrily. Orochi thrust in hard, gripping Tetsuya's hips tightly as the coil snapped viciously in each of them and the two fell together into an explosion of long, hot pulses of release. And for one stunned moment, his heart connected with Orochi's, sharing the gripping joy of completion. He nearly disappeared into the blazing heat that filled him, and felt tears on his face as Orochi's fingers caught his chin and pulled him into a long, over the shoulder kiss. They collapsed completely, Tetsuya's heaving body trapped beneath his cousin's, and his mind suddenly registering the disappearance of the bonds and black snakes. He was still blindfolded, but could feel the steady motion of Orochi's breaths. He began to drift towards sleep, wondering how someone like Orochi, who was seemingly so cold and methodical, could be so warm in body. He didn't know how long he would be allowed to remain in that comfortably warm bed, surrounded by the oddly compelling scents of their sexual joining, but an escape from the chill of his cell seemed a blessing, despite what he had been made to endure.

A sudden, curious thought shocked his sleepy mind.

_I have never seen Orochi-sama sleeping._

He shifted carefully, dislodging the blindfold just enough to be able to steal a glimpse of the other man's face. The dangerous black eyes were closed and his body relaxed against Tetsuya's sweating back. His hair that was usually carefully slicked back had escaped his control somewhat, and several errant strands had trickled onto his strikingly handsome face.

_Orochi-sama is a beautiful and cruel man._

_How do I dare fall asleep in the arms of such a man?_

He was still wondering when sleep overtook him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Orochi woke some hours later to find that they had moved in their sleep, and he was lying on his back with Tetsuya curled up on his chest, his lovely face tucked beneath Orochi's chin and the fingers of one hand laced together with his. His first instinct was to wake his cousin and order him to dress in the dirty, poor shift he wore usually, and to send him back to his cold, dank cell.

It wasn't kindness that held him back from acting on that instinct, but a dark fascination with how Tetsuya was clinging to him, and the fact of how good it felt to be held that way.

He had had sex with other prisoners before...but never in his own room, never letting them wear fine clothes, and never using his powers as he had to bind them together and to intensify their joining. There was something different in what was between his half-blood cousin and himself that made him curious.

_But we have time to explore this._

_Byakuya's raid won't happen for some time._

_Yes, we have time._


	2. Whispers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tetsuya begins to suffer from odd hallucinations, and does something impetuous that earns Orochi's displeasure.

XXXXXXXXXX

_It's cold again._

_I know this place where I lie, next to the one I love. But the seed that warms me inside is not his, nor is the flavor on my lips._

_His love cannot wash this away._

_Your poison is in my veins, spreading silently, overtaking, and slowly destroying..._

_me._

XXXXXXXXXX

"Are you all right now, Tetsuya-san?" Naoki breathed softly in his dazed cellmate's ear, running his fingers through Tetsuya's sweat-dampened hair, "You've barely spoken since you came back. And you haven't stopped shaking. You are frightening me. Please, watashi no koi, say something!"

Tetsuya tried to move his lips, but they only trembled softly and gave no sound. His voice seemed frozen inside him, and his heart felt empty and chilled. Tears burned in Naoki's brown eyes as he spotted the bruising on his lover's wrists and ankles, and the bite markings around his neck and shoulders.

"I am sorry," he whispered, crying softly, "I wish I could have stopped them from taking you to him. I wish I wasn't so weak, Tetsuya-san. Tetsuya-san needs someone strong to protect him from the ones who would hurt him. I am so sorry I can't be that strong, and I can't protect you. I love you, Tetsuya-san! Won't you please say something to me?"

"You there! Naoki-kun!" called one of the guards, rattling the cell door as he unlocked it, "It's your turn to serve in the laundry. Come on."

"Please, sir," Naoki said, remaining on his knees and bowing deeply, "My cellmate is ill. I swear I will do double duty once he is well. Will you please let me take him to the infirmary?"

The guard scowled, but then looked more closely at Tetsuya and nodded.

"Oh, he was with Orochi-san for his first time, ne?" he said, a breath of sympathy in his voice, "Go on, then. I'll find a replacement this once."

"Arigatou," Naoki said respectfully, bowing low again, then helping Tetsuya to his feet and guiding him out of the cell.

The guard moved on, leaving the two to walk to the infirmary alone. Naoki kept his arm around Tetsuya, studying his profile as they walked slowly down the quiet corridor.

"You'll be all right, Tetsuya-san," he promised, "It was like that for me when I came of age. I wasn't with Orochi-sama, but the ones who took me were not gentle at all. I'm sorry, Tetsuya-san, so sorry!"

Still too distressed for words, Tetsuya squeezed Naoki's hand to let him know he had heard. He closed his eyes and let the other young man guide him, trying a they walked, to erase the memories that assaulted his mind. But he couldn't seem to escape the burning feeling inside that had haunted him, ever since Orochi had loosed his seed inside him. And all of the places on his body where the man had touched him, ached and stung naggingly. But, much worse than the actual pain, which he could have managed, was the jolt he felt, remembering how it had been at the end.

_Up until that point, I didn't want any of it. I was scared until then...so frightened. But, something happened just then, when Orochi-sama finally freed me of that device. Nothing was left holding me. I was capable of fighting him. But, instead, I responded to him._

_"Stay with me," he said._

_The words sounded like a request, not an order. They were said more gently. And without even thinking, I obeyed him. I didn't do it that time, because I was scared._

_No._

_When we climaxed together, I was with him of my own free will. I wanted him to give me that pleasure. I lowered myself and even begged him for it. In that one, intense moment, I forgot everything but Orochi-sama. I let him possess me._

_And now, I can't forgive myself._

"Tetsuya-san," Naoki said worriedly, "Tetsuya-san, don't cry! It's going to be all right. The healer will make it stop hurting so much."

_He doesn't understand._

_It isn't the pain in my body, but the guilt in my heart._

_I am so undeserving of you, Naoki. Would you hate me if you knew? But no, someone like you could never hate me. You are not like that man. You are gentle and kind. Your words and your touches never hurt me._

_So, why did my heart betray me like that?_

Tetsuya's mind barely registered the moment when they reached the infirmary, and Naoki began to explain his symptoms to the healer. Their words echoed strangely in Tetsuya's ears, and his mind could not seem to focus. He felt their eyes on him, and heard Naoki speak to him, but couldn't understand anymore. He felt his legs give way beneath him, and the room went suddenly dark.

The darkness swirled around him, so strangely quiet after the echoing words from before. Words did reach him, but the voices changed. Naoki's voice left him, and another sounded, one that made him feel afraid again.

_"Are you afraid?"_

His body went icily cold, and his fevered mind registered Orochi's voice, and the healer's.

_"He seems to have contracted some kind of infection, Orochi-san. And you know that they don't provide me with antibiotics. They would rather just let them live or die on their own."_

Tetsuya wanted to feel angry at the words. The ones who ran the prison were awful, hateful men, who didn't care if the prisoners lived or died. He wanted to hate them back. But even lying in the infirmary, and realizing that he was dying of something that could be simply cured, if they had cared, he couldn't make himself be like that.

_Then, I would be like them._

_And he wasn't going to let that happen._

_"I will be back,"_ Orochi's voice said. 

_Things went dark and quiet again. He heard only intermittent moans, and now and again, a wet cloth cooled his fevered face, and Noaki's voice returned. He began to feel himself drifting, leaving his body and the chill confines of the prison. He knew he was dying, but no longer cared._

_At least I will leave the prison, even if it is by dying._

_But just when he felt like he might let go, Orochi's voice reached him again._

_"Stay with me."_

He decided that he must be delirious. He couldn't have heard Orochi asking him not to die. His cousin was a cruel man. His cousin hated him, and wouldn't care if he died.

_"Arigatou, Orochi-san,"_ the healer's voice said, somewhere in the distance, _"I will begin the infusion immediately._

_He felt a tiny pinprick in his arm and flinched, remembering the feel of Orochi's black snakes. He felt them again, sliding over his flushed skin, wrapping around his wrists and ankles and felt their glowing eyes watching him. Something cool and pleasant floated into his veins, stealing away the heat that had seemed to envelop him._

_"Thank you again, Orochi-san,"_ the healer's voice said quietly, _"He was nearly gone, but the antibiotic is stabilizing him now."_

The words repeated themselves in his still spinning mind, and he wondered if he had just imagined them. 

_Orochi-sama hates me and looks down on me._

_He wouldn't..._

Tetsuya's eyelids fluttered, and then his eyes opened and struggled to focus. Strangely, although he was sure that he had heard Naoki's voice only moments before, it was Orochi's eyes he encountered. And they didn't look worried. They were dark and unreadable. Distant. 

"Orochi-sama?" he whispered, blinking. 

"Go back to sleep," the black-eyed man said shortly, "And keep in mind that you owe me for this. You will repay me when you are well again." 

The words made him shiver. 

"You tried to leave. But understand, Tetsuya, that you will not do that unless I give you permission. I told you before. You belong to me. You are going to stay with me and serve me. You will not leave me. And you will not even die without my permission. Do you understand?" 

"Y-yes, Orochi-sama," he whispered, closing his burning eyes. 

_Why couldn't I just die?_

Orochi left, then, and Naoki ran into the room and sat down at Tetsuya's side, gripping his hand tightly and kissing him, while he cried in relief. 

"Y-you're going to be all right now. You have no idea how scared I was, Tetsuya-san! I almost lost you. I don't know what I would do if you left me like that, watashi no koi!" Naoki said, kissing him and touching his face gently. 

"N-naoki!" he moaned sleepily. 

"Shh, rest now, okay? I have to go for a while. But, I will be back when it is time for you to be released." 

"Naoki, don't go!" he pleaded softly. 

"Shh, it's okay. Go back to sleep, Tetsuya-san." 

He tried to sleep, but couldn't seem to drop off. Orochi's voice returned to him, haunting and teasing him as he tried to calm enough to rest. 

_Stay with me._

_You tried to leave. But understand, Tetsuya, that you will not do that unless I give you permission. I told you before. You belong to me. You are going to stay with me and serve me. You will not leave me. And you will not even die without my permission. Do you understand?_

_You belong to me..._

_You are mine..._

_You will not leave me. And you will not even die without my permission. Do you understand?_

_Keep in mind that you owe me for this. You will repay me when you are well again._

He went weak all over and his heart raced fitfully, remembering. 

_He couldn't keep from shaking at the sight of the oddly beautiful, black snakes as they turned their heads and glared hypnotically into his eyes. He wanted to look away, but found himself frozen by those depthless, black orbs, unable to move as Orochi moved his hips, rubbing against Tetsuya's body, which, despite the terror coursing through his veins, was also reacting with surprising vigor._

_"There, you see," Orochi breathed hotly in his ear, "You are afraid, but your body knows it is about to experience something new and earthshakingly intense._

He felt a strong twinge in his loins as he remembered. And even the painful things he remembered, only made that feeling of arousal intensify. He tried to ignore the sensation, to think of Naoki and what real love was supposed to feel like. But the blackness seemed to have taken root inside him. Orochi's words sounded chillingly in his mind as his awakened member hardened and leaked hungrily. 

_What is wrong with me?_

_Has the fever returned?_

He felt flushed and sweaty all over, and his loins ached fiercely. He tried to conjure Naoki's gentle voice to shatter the spell, but only Orochi's seemed to reach him. 

_You belong to me..._

_You are mine..._

He shivered involuntarily, reeling as he felt again, the rough touches and caresses Orochi had laid upon his body during their coupling. And just the memory reawakened what he had felt before. He shifted uncomfortably, his loins throbbing and his lips whispering his tormentor's name. 

"O-orochi-sama..." he whispered dizzily. 

He opened his eyes and went cold inside as he encountered something he knew to be a hallucination. But a much as it wasn't real, it still ensnared him. 

_Orochi sat at his bedside, glaring down at him through sly, narrowed eyes, his lips smirking as he studied the obvious signs of arousal. Tetsuya's widened eyes locked on his, held there, as though by some unyielding force._

_"What's wrong?" he asked mockingly, "Is there something you want from me, Tetsuya?"_

"N-no!" he moaned feverishly. 

_"What a liar you are Tetsuya," he laughed, sliding a hand under the blanket and teasing his swollen cock with the lightest brush of his hand._

"Stop!" 

He let out a frightened sob as he felt again the sleek bodies of Orochi's conjured snakes, sliding along his torso and wrapping around his wrists and ankles. 

"Stop! Please stop!" he pleaded, closing his eyes. 

But, even with his eyes closed, he still saw them. 

_And this time, there were more of them. They seemed to crawl all over him, rubbing along his bare flesh and making his jaw clench to keep from crying out. As much as he feared their stinging bites, his body reacted strongly to the feel of their touch on his skin. His protests disappeared into discomfited moans. Then, Orochi's mocking voice returned to him._

_"Do you understand now? You belong to me. I am inside you, Tetsuya. And if you still question that, then let me make it clear to you."_

Tetsuya's eyes flew open, and he cast his eyes around the room in panic. He found himself alone. But even awake, he could feel the snakes sliding along his skin. Orochi's voice echoed in his ears, and he felt those rough, commanding hands caressing him. He felt a complete loss of control over his body, and quivered as the imagined sensations erupted everywhere. His breath shortened, and his eyes closed against what was happening. And although he hated to feel so controlled, there was no denying the tremors of approaching release, the moans that slipped from between his lips and the way his hands clenched, as though holding on to Orochi. 

Of its own accord, his rebelling body shuddered, pleasure flooding it from end to end. At the same moment, his mind fired itself back to that moment in his joining with Orochi, where the restraints were suddenly released, and his body instinctively clung to the person causing his pleasure. 

He hated himself for giving in...for letting the man get to him without even being in the room. And when the door opened and Orochi entered the room where he was being treated, Tetsuya lost all control and burst from the bed, darting past him before he could react. He ran wildly through the corridors, not even realizing that he was naked, not caring. All he wanted was to wrap himself tightly in Naoki's arms and forget what had happened. He reached their cell and grabbed the bars tightly with both hands. 

"Naoki!" he sobbed, as the guard approached, staring at him in confusion. 

"Tetsuya-san!" Naoki gasped, "Tetsuya-san, you are supposed to be in the infirmary! You have been terribly ill. You must...!" 

He broke off as Orochi appeared in the corridor and approached Tetsuya from behind. 

"You seem to have recovered well enough to run away from me," he said, smirking, "Now, I think it is time that you begin to repay me for saving your wretched life." 

"No!" Tetsuya screamed, fighting the arm that wrapped tightly around his waist, "Naoki!" 

"Let him go!" Naoki screamed, rattling the bars of their cell, "Tetsuya-san!" 

"Get back!" the guard warned him, striking the bars with the small baton he carried. 

Naoki stepped back, staring in shock as Tetsuya seemed to go mad, turning in Orochi's arms and screaming and striking blindly at him with his bare hands. 

"Don't touch me, you bastard!" Tetsuya howled, his blue eyes flaring, "Let me go!" 

Frowning, Orochi grabbed him by the throat and shoved him back against the bars of his cell, shocking his body with pain and stealing the breath from his lungs. The fight drained out of him, and he stood, barely on his feet and shaking so hard he thought he would fall. Orochi glared at him and released him, nearly making him collapse. 

"Come with me," he ordered Tetsuya. 

Tetsuya remained frozen in place. 

Orochi's eyes darkened. 

"And bring him too," he said, nodding in Naoki's direction. 

The guard moved forward to unlock the cell door, but froze as Tetsuya's hand wrapped around his, and he stepped in the way. Scowling, the guard raised his baton and started to swing it at him, but found it nimbly caught by Orochi. Realizing that there was nothing left he could do, Tetsuya dropped to his knees at Orochi's feet. 

"Please," he panted in desperation, "Orochi-sama, I will do anything you ask. But, please do not hurt Naoki. He didn't disobey you. He didn't do anything. It was my fault...all of it!"

Orochi looked from Tetsuya's bowed head, to Naoki, then back again and his lips curved into a cruel smile. 

"You are apologizing to me?" he asked, taking the baton from the guard and touching it to Tetsuya's chin, raising his head so their eyes met, "And you think that I will forgive you for running away from me and causing such a scene?" 

"I am sorry, Orochi-sama. Please, forgive me. I...I didn't know what I was doing." 

"Obviously," Orochi mused, "Well, it seems I am in a mood to be forgiving. Just you, then." 

"Hai, Orochi-sama," Tetsuya said, starting to rise.

"Wait," Orochi said, looking up at Naoki as he went on, "Before we go, I want you to show how sorry you are for disobeying me." 

Tetsuya shivered as Orochi adjusted his clothing to reveal his aroused genitals. 

"Go on, then. Do it in front of them," he ordered Tetsuya. 

Tetsuya swallowed hard, barely able to make himself move, but loathe to let any harm come to Naoki. He moved forward, avoiding his lover's teary eyes, and knelt between Orochi's parted thighs. Orochi's fingers threaded into his tumbled hair, and tightened warningly. 

"If you do anything else in defiance, I will have that boy executed while you watch." 

Tetsuya said nothing more, but quietly took Orochi's length into his mouth. He placed his hands on his cousin's thighs and began to suck obediently. He remained silent as he pleasured Orochi, blushing with embarrassment at doing such a thing in front of Naoki and the flustered guard. He tried to work quickly, to get it over with as soon as possible, but Orochi carefully controlled the pace, making it seem to go on forever as Tetsuya's mouth rose and fell on his length, and he moved his hips, penetrating slowly and deeply. But finally, he captured Tetsuya's face and held him still, staring at Naoki's pale face triumphantly as he filled Tetsuya's mouth with his seed, then ordered him to swallow it. Tetsuya remained on his knees after, staring silently at the cold stone floor and waiting.

"Come," Orochi said, taking his hand and bringing him to his feet. That was your apology. Now, it is time for your punishment." 

"No, please!" begged Naoki, tears running down his cheeks, "He's been so ill! Please don't, Orochi-sama! I will go with you in his place! Please!" 

Orochi slipped an arm around Tetsuya and offered him a falsely kind smile. 

"Did you hear that?" he asked, cupping his hand around Tetsuya's cheek, "Your friend offers to pay for your disobedience, Tetsuya. What do you say?" 

Tetsuya turned back and met Naoki's wounded gaze with regretful eyes. 

"I am sorry," he whispered, moving with Orochi as his cousin guided him away. 

"Tetsuya-san!" Naoki sobbed, dropping onto his knees, "Tetsuya!" 

Orochi led his silent, pale-faced cousin to his bedroom and left him standing in the entry, while he retrieved the blue yukata from the bathroom. He returned to find Tetsuya had simply collapsed onto the floor. 

He knelt at his cousin's side, checking his breathing and reiatsu, then sighed in annoyance and wrapped the yukata around him, before lifting him and carrying him to the bed. 

"I should have taken that Naoki up on his offer," he muttered as he tucked Tetsuya into his bed, "You're not worth the trouble." 

He leaned over Tetsuya, infusing him with calming reiatsu to keep him asleep, then removed his clothes and slipped into a sleeping yukata, before climbing into the bed and coiling himself around his cousin's resting form. 

"Get plenty of sleep, Tetsuya," he warned the younger man, even knowing he couldn't hear, "You are going to pay for your defiance." 

He buried his face in Tetsuya's soft hair, and soon joined him in sleep. 


	3. Little Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochi is furious when te prison guards take an unexpected action against Tetsuya.

"I am worried for you, Tetsuya-san," Naoki said softly as the two knelt, pulling weeds, in the small patch of growing vegetables in the prison courtyard, "You seem better than you were, but you have never quite been yourself, after being with that man...with Orochi-sama."

"I don't understand him, Noaki-san," Tetsuya sighed, breathing in the sweet, cool vapors of the green plants and damp soil, "His words are cruel. He always speaks of how we are lesser because we are mixed bloods."

"And yet, it doesn't stop the man from using you for his pleasure," Naoki said in a disgusted tone.

"No," Tetsuya agreed, sighing as he studied the bruises on his wrists, "He becomes aroused when he sees how helpless I am, nearly naked and tied to his bed. He mocks me for being unable to stop whatever he wants to do, and he seems to enjoy making me cry."

"He is a monster," Naoki said, shaking his head.

"Much of the time," Tetsuya agreed, slipping a small, ripe tomato into his mouth while the guard wasn't looking, "But sometimes he does things that make no sense. He has an expensive yukata he makes me wear when I am with him...only when I am with him. And while the other guards here will take prisoners nearly anywhere, sometimes in front of others guards or prisoner, and they will share a prisoner between them, when I am with Orochi-sama, we are only in his bed, and no one is ever allowed to touch me."

Naoki smiled.

"Except when we are alone at night and I touch you."

Tetsuya blushed.

"Yes, except then," he agreed, stealing another small tomato.

"You are very hungry this morning, ne?" Naoki observed, "It is good to see you are able to eat more normally again, after how ill you were."

Tetsuya sighed and frowned down at his hands.

"Yes, but Naoki, I am still wondering. I wonder why Orochi-sama brought medicine to help save me."

"Shh," the brown-eyed youth hissed, looking around, "You aren't supposed to know that. And how do you know you weren't just delirious when you heard it?"

"I wonder also why he kept me in his bed for nearly a week before sending me back to my cell."

"Hmmm," Naoki huffed skeptically, "The man just probably really enjoys tormenting you, and was afraid of having to find another favorite to torture if you died."

"Maybe," Tetsuya said, feeling less than convinced.

"And remember how he made you pay for his inconvenience," Naoki reminded him, making Tetsuya shiver softly, even in the warm sun, "Don't forget that, Tetsuya-san. He wasn't being kind."

"No," Tetsuya agreed, flinching as he remembered, "I don't think Orochi-sama knows what kindness is. It is good for me, then, that my Naoki does."

Naoki slipped an arm around him and stole a kiss.

"I do," he said, nuzzling Tetsuya's cheek, then looking around, "Tetsuya-san, Orochi-sama is away, ne?"

"That is what I heard," Tetsuya whispered back, smiling.

"When the guards look away, let's slip into the bushes, okay? I want to touch Tetsuya-san a bit."

Tetsuya's smile widened, and he nodded.

The two waited until they were sure the guards were not watching, then ducked down in the tall plants and crawled to a bushy corner of the courtyard, where the brush and trees hid their presence. Once out of sight, Naoki pulled Tetsuya to his feet and sought his lips for a bout of warm, penetrating kisses. Their hands slipped underneath each others' poor, torn yukatas and caressed and teased as the two kissed more hungrily.

But soon, kissing and touching didn't feel like it was enough.

"Tetsuya-san, will you make love to me?" Naoki whispered, licking his cellmate's warm, sweet lips, "I want you so much!"

Tetsuya couldn't speak, but blushed and nodded, then leaned back against the stone wall while Naoki opened their yukatas and moved forward to claim him.

One hand slid down Tetsuya's slim back, running slowly over his round, white bottom and sliding down to capture his leg. Naoki pressed forward, lifting Tetsuya's leg gently, then bringing his damp, hungry member to the younger prisoner's entrance. He rubbed the slick head around the area to moisten it, as they fell to kissing again, then he moved in slow, measured thrusts to enter him.

They were careful not to make any loud noises, keeping themselves confined to soft, panting breaths and gentle sighs of pleasure. Tetsuya's fingers worked their way into Naoki's brown hair, encouraging him as he explored the lovely, pale skin of Tetsuya's soft throat. He ached inside at the sight of the bruises that Orochi had left behind, and kissed those areas tenderly, wishing he could heal them and make them disappear.

"I love you, Tetsuya-san," Noaki whispered, closing his eyes as he was overtaken with pleasure, and released into Tetsuya's gently writhing body in long, hot spurts. Tetsuya bit back a moan of completion, watching as Naoki's member exited his body, and his lover dropped to his knees in front of him, just in time to capture his spasming arousal and devour his released seed. He took his time, slowly savoring the task of licking Tetsuya's flesh clean, then coaxed him down for a heated barrage of finishing kisses.

Still panting softly with exertion. the two watched the nearby guards, then slipped back out into the gardens to continue their task. They stole quiet glances at each other as they worked, and rose and walked side-by-side, back into the cold confines of the prison's interior when the guards called for them.

"Tetsuya-san, you look a little pale," Naoki said softly as they walked towards their cell.

"I don't feel so well," Tetsuya admitted, "My stomach hurts."

"You must have eaten too many berries and tomatoes," Naoki chuckled, "But I will rub your stomach for you when we get to our..."

He broke off as Tetsuya dropped to his knees, grabbing his midsection and crying out in pain.

"What is it!" Naoki cried, dropping to his knees in front of the reeling youth, "Tetsuya-san, are you sick again?"

"I-I don't know! It hurts, Naoki-san!"

He crawled forward to a trash can and heaved several times, expelling the contents of his stomach as Naoki held him and rubbed his back, and the guards watched wordlessly. His stomach empty, Tetsuya leaned against Naoki, and the elder youth held him close and spoke calmly in his ear.

Tetsuya felt the harsh ache in his belly fade, and he managed to get to his feet and start towards his cell again.

"Are you sure that you don't want to see the healer, Tetsuya-san?" Naoki asked in a concerned voice.

"I am all right now," Tetsuya sighed, "I just want to rest."

They had only gone a few steps more, when Tetsuya simply dropped in his tracks, instantly losing consciousness.

"Tetsuya-san!" Naoki cried.

Tetsuya descended into quiet darkness, barely registering when his body was lifted and carried to the infirmary. He heard soft voices, and Naoki crying and saying he had to go, then he heard the voices of the healer and one of the guards.

"Shouldn't we wait for Orochi-san to return?" the healer asked, "He doesn't allow anyone to touch this one. He might have different orders..."

"He's not going to allow this half-blood trash to pollute the Kuchiki bloodline with a bastard child," the guard said tersely, "Get rid of it."

Realization spread through Tetsuya's body, bringing him fully awake as the healer's hands touched him to begin to prepare him for the procedure.

"No!" he screamed, surging out of the bed and backing away as the healer watched with sad eyes, and the dour-faced guard advanced on him, "No, don't touch me! Orochi-san won't let you touch me! You know that!"

"Take it easy, now," the guard cautioned him, "You don't want me to have to hurt you, kid. Just behave yourself and lie down. It will be over with quickly, and it won't hurt you."

"I don't care about that!" Tetsuya cried, shrinking into the corner of the room as the guard came closer, "Don't hurt my baby!"

"Ah, you overheard," the guard said, frowning, "But, you know that prisoners aren't allowed to have children by nobles in here. It's the rules."

"It's not Orochi-sama's!" Tetsuya sobbed, "I was with Naoki-san! I swear it! It's not Orochi-sama's! Please...please don't...!"

The guard took hold of his wrist, but Tetsuya twisted away and started to run blindly. Pounding feet followed as he burst out of the infirmary and into the maze of corridors. A moment later, the prison alarms began to shriek, making his heart pound wildly as he sought someplace, anyplace to hide from the guards.

He rounded a corner and ran headlong into a group that was responding to the alert, then out of control, kicking and screaming wildly, scratching and biting, clawing and trying desperately to break free. But, finally, a hard shock of kido stunned him, and he was lifted and hauled back to the infirmary.

Tears ran down his face in streams as the guards strapped him securely to the table and nodded to the healer to proceed. The healer moved in close and touched his face gently.

"I am sorry," he whispered, "I can't stop what is going to happen. If Orochi-san was here, he might..."

He paused and shook his head sadly.

"But, no. His subfamily is known for not allowing mixed bloods to be born into their group."

"It's not Orochi-sama's," Tetsuya moaned, near incoherently, "I was w-with Naoki."

"Shh," said the healer, "I checked to be sure. This is Orochi-san's baby. Trust me, Tetsuya-san, I was thorough. And truly, the kind of man he is, it is better this way. Rest, now."

"No...n-no, please don't!" Tetsuya sobbed, struggling against the restraints until the healer sent a heavy throb of kido through him to steal away his consciousness.

Tetsuya sank into an ocean of darkness, his mind screaming as he sensed the tiny bit of life inside him and tried to hold on to it. But, sedated as he was, he couldn't fight what was happening, and slowly felt the little pulse of life weaken and fade.

He laid alone, then, in heavy blackness, not even able to emerge as the kido around him faded and the healer tried to rouse him.

"Forget about that," the guard said, dragging the senseless prisoner off of the bed and ignoring the fact that he couldn't even stand, "He attacked us, and he tried to escape. He goes into the pit."

"He reacted because he heard that we were going to kill his child," the healer objected, "Anyone would have done the same. He only fought to protect his child. And he wasn't trying to escape, but to hide from you, so that..."

"It doesn't matter," the guard said, clenching Tetsuya's limp body by the tie at his waist and dragging him away, "The rules are the rules. He goes into the pit."

"Damn..." the healer sighed, biting at his lips and shaking his head, "I know they are prisoners, but this is cruel..."

Tetsuya felt nothing as his unresponsive body was dropped into the small, freezing confines of the isolation pits, and a large, wooden door was closed over him. There was barely space to move in the coffin-like chamber, but he couldn't move anyway. His body refused to move at all as grief froze him in place, stilling everything but the most basic of his systems. He made no sound, his cries now only sounding on the inside as he reeled inwardly, trying to cope with the loss of his child.

_It doesn't matter that it was Orochi-sama's child too. A baby is innocent. Babies are not born hateful and cruel. They learn to be that way, taught by the cruelty of others. I wouldn't have let the cruelty of this place make my child like them. No, he...or she would have learned to be gentle, like Naoki and me. My child wouldn't be anything like Orochi-sama and those monsters who keep us here. He might have Orochi-sama's great strength, but he would have my heart, so that he would never hurt anyone who hadn't done harm to him._

_Yes, my child would have been beautiful..._

_My baby..._

_My baby..._

em>My baby...

Tetsuya's mind replayed the words endlessly as he sank into what seemed an endless night. And as dark as it was, the damage to his heart was even darker.

XXXXXXXXXX

Naoki didn't look up as footsteps approached his cell, but remained in the back corner of the cell, sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees and crying softly. The footsteps stopped outside the bars, and Orochi's angry voice sounded.

"You there, Naoki. Where is Tetsuya?"

Naoki looked up then, through shattered eyes, and Orochi froze, staring at him.

"Where is Tetsuya?" he demanded, more stridently, "Tell me now!"

"Th-the infirmary?" Naoki said uncertainly.

"What happened? Did he become ill again?"

"H-he said that his stomach hurt and he threw up a lot," Naoki managed, "I took him to the infirmary, and the healer...he...he said that Tetsuya-san was..."

Orochi scowled impatiently.

"They said he was what? Hurry, boy, I don't have all day!"

"The healer said he was p-pregnant," Naoki said shakenly, "Tetsuya-san is...But I don't know what happened. They never brought him back. It's been five days!"

Orochi turned without listening anymore, and strode quickly to the infirmary, sliding to a stop as he reached the place and observed the row of empty beds.

"Nobu," he shouted at the healer, "Where is Tetsuya? I heard that he was brought here."

"He freaked out when the healer discovered he was pregnant and had to abort it," reported a guard, who had stepped into the room behind him, "He fought with a group of us and tried to escape, so we subdued him and had the healer do the procedure, then I took him down to the pit."

Orochi turned suddenly and grabbed the guard by the throat, shoving him back against the wall and glaring darkly into his eyes.

"You...did what, Hisoka?" he asked in an icily calm voice.

"It's standing orders," the guard said, his face paling, "The prisoners aren't allowed to bear children, especially more of their polluted kind! You know that!"

"What I know, Orochi growled, tightening his hand until the guard began to struggle and make choking sounds, "is that I left orders that Tetsuya is never to be touched without my leave. You knew that."

"Augh! Y-you shouldn't have been playing with him like you do, anyway!" Hisoka objected, "We're just supposed to..."

Orochi's eyes flashed dangerously, and he tightened his hand until the guard could no longer speak.

"You are supposed to obey the orders of your superiors. And I am one of them. I made it clear, my cousin's fate is in my hands, and mine alone! No one touches Tetsuya unless I order it!"

"B-bastard, let go!" gasped Hisoka, gripping Orochi's hand, "Th-the...prison master will hear of this! I swear you will be...!"

He made a sudden, guttural sound of dismay and went silent as Orochi's free hand moved with blinding speed and blood erupted between the two men. Orochi watched with dead-calm eyes as he released the dying guard and he slumped to the floor.

"No one touches what is mine," Orochi said coldly, watching as the man's body twitched several times, then fell still.

Hearing the disturbance, the healer ran into the room and slid to a stop, staring from the bloodstained Orochi to the dead guard on the floor.

"Clean that up," Orochi told the shocked healer, "And if you want to live, then you will never undertake a medical procedure on my cousin without my direct authorization again!"

"H-hai, Orochi-san!" the healer answered in a nearly panicked tone as Orochi turned and left the infirmary.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tetsuya laid in the blackness, his mind oddly quiet, relieved at the distance he now had from his life in the prison. It might be dark and cold where he rested, but his body had long ago become numb to the pain he had felt before. And locked away from everything, he could subdue the ache in his heart and make his mind quiet.

_They call the pit the ultimate punishment. It is the most feared of punishments for us. But...this place is not frightening to me. Here, in the midst of nothingness, I can erase everything. Everything has disappeared, and all that is left is darkness and quiet...the slow inhale and exhale of breath. Breathing is simple. So much simpler than living out there._

_Oh please, just let me forget..._

_I want to forget..._

_Let me disappear into this endless night and forget everything..._

He would have cried out in horror, had he the strength, as the wooden door over his body suddenly opened, and light came flooding back in. His mouth opened in a soundless scream, and the light that came in blinded him, so that all that registered was the hiss of Orochi's furious voice, and the mingled scents of sakura and fine leather that always hung in the air around Orochi.

_Orochi-sama is here?_

_Why would he come here?_

_Why does he always come back?_

_Why does he save me, time after time?_

_Does he not understand?_

_This time, I don't want to be saved..._

He caught another scent, coppery and disturbingly familiar.

_Blood?_

_Is Orochi-sama bleeding?_

_Or is that me?_

_What is happening?_

_Why do I feel so much pain again?_

Tetsuya's voice finally returned, and he screamed in agony as Orochi's arms lifted him out of the small chamber and brought his head to rest on a strong, warm shoulder.

"Come with me," Orochi said, still in that deadly, furious voice, "And be quiet."

Tetsuya couldn't answer, but his slender fingers wound themselves into Orochi's shirt, and he moaned softly as he was carried out of the icy darkness. The cellblocks they passed through seemed oddly warm, though it registered with Tetsuya that it must be that the pit was just even colder than their usual housing.

But full warmth didn't return until he was lying in Orochi's bed and his cousin handed him a cup of hot tea.

"Orochi-sama," he said suddenly, making the black-eyed man stare at him questioningly, "Tell me something."

Orochi continued to look back at him wordlessly.

"Orochi-sama hates mixed-bloods. Orochi-sama hates me. Tell me...did Orochi-sama hate our child too?"

The next thing Tetsuya knew, the tea had been taken from his hand and he was falling back into darkness, though this time, one that was far less cold.

"You really are stupid sometimes," Orochi's voice whispered as Tetsuya succumbed to his sleep kido, "You don't understand anything at all, do you?"


	4. Under My Skin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochi finds out that Tetsuya is scheduled to be executed, and takes 'action.'

"Why did you summon me here?" Orochi asked in a low, confrontational tone, "It is dangerous. We could be seen and overheard. And, in any case, as the one whose hand actually took my child's life, you should be wary of me, don't you think?"

The healer flinched at the intensity of the other man's reiatsu, but stood his ground stubbornly.

"You mean, your 'never meant to be,' mixed blood abomination?" he asked in a low hiss, "Don't act as though you actually cared about Tetsuya-san or the child he carried. You forget. I know exactly what you have done to that young man. You forget who has to heal him after your time with him. I don't know why Byakuya-sama even trusts you. Your family has a long reputation for hating the mixed bloods."

"Precisely why I was accepted here. I have a background that suggests my views are like those of the ones here."

"Aren't they?"

"To some extent, perhaps. I do think that the mixed bloods need to understand their place, but I do not extend that belief to thinking that they should be killed."

"Then, you would have protected your child with Tetsuya? Perhaps to the detriment of Byakuya-sama's plans? That is very reckless of you."

"Shut up and get to the point. Why did you call me here?"

"Two reasons," the healer said softly, "First, the prison master has ordered that Tetsuya is to be executed tomorrow."

Orochi's eyes darkened.

"Bastard..." he hissed softly, "But it is not completely unexpected. Females and the rare breeder males like him are routinely executed. I believe that Tetsuya only escaped that because he was not identified as being capable of being used as a breeder. Sometimes they are not identified until the first successful gestation."

"There is more," the healer said warningly, The order was given confidentially. You know what that means."

"He is suspicious of me," Orochi growled, "He wants to provoke me. Damn..."

"The second thing I summoned you to tell you is that the raid will happen in the morning."

"Cutting it rather close for Tetsuya, ne?" the black-eyed shinigami said, frowning as he considered what to do.

"I would suggest going to him and taking him to your room tonight. We do not know when the order will be carried out. If it happens before the raid..."

"Yes. Go on, now. I don't want us to be seen."

Orochi watched with angry, glinting eyes as the healer left, then turned back and headed into the cellblock where Tetsuya was being held. He strode past the guards on duty and came to Tetsuya and Naoki's cell.

"Orochi-san," the guard said, frowning, "We have orders to remove Tetsuya for execution at sunrise. I am afraid that you cannot remove him from our sight."

"Oh, now," Orochi said, smirking, "You wouldn't deny me one last dance with my prettiest little love-slave before he leaves us, ne? I might remind you that you owe me, Hotaka. Remember?"

The guard let out an annoyed breath, but relented.

"Fine, then, take him with you. But have him back before the morning group is taken or we'll both be executed with him."

"Right," Orochi sighed off-handedly.

He met Tetsuya's wide, teary eyes coldly.

"Stand straighter, half-blood," he said disapprovingly, "You may be marked for death, but you are, in fact, part Kuchiki. And that means that even if you die, you will do so proudly. Now, come with me."

Tetsuya turned back for a moment, meeting Naoki for a tearful parting embrace. Orochi bit his lip gently, considering.

"You," he said gruffly, "Naoki. You come too."

Tetsuya's eyes widened and he started to object, but held himself back carefully, noting the oddness in Orochi's behavior. He held Naoki's hand tightly and the two exited the cell and followed Orochi out of the cellblock. None of the three spoke as they passed through the quiet hallways, heading for the officers' quarters. But, Tetsuya could no longer contain himself when Orochi turned them, not towards his own chambers, but into a dark hallway.

"Orochi-sama?"

Orochi shoved him back against the wall, glaring down into his eyes.

"Be quiet!" he hissed, "Or do you really _want to be executed, Tetsuya_?"

"You are...protecting me?" Tetsuya said in the barest whisper, "Orochi-sama, why? And why are you protecting Naoki?"

"Shut up," Orochi said, touching a hidden place in the wall and opening up a hidden passageway, "In here."

Tetsuya and Naoki stepped into the dark passage, then caught their breath sharply as the doorway closed, leaving them in darkness. Orochi whispered a soft incantation, and a kido light rose around his hand. The two prisoners followed closely behind him as he led them along the black, interior corridor.

"Wh-what is this place, Orochi-sama?" Tetsuya whispered breathlessly, "Where are you taking us?"

"We can't leave the fortress," Orochi said softly, "There are too many guards. I am going to position the two of you near the front gates. We will remain concealed for tonight, and when I open the way, you will run for safety with Byakuya's invading forces."

Tetsuya's and Naoki's eyes widened.

"The raid!" Naoki whispered, "It is happening soon?"

"Yes," Orochi told them, leading them out of the passage they were in, and into another, "I would have preferred not to make any suspicious moves now, but the prison master was already showing suspicion, and the order for your execution was as much a challenge to me as a strike against you."

"But, why?" asked Tetsuya, "Why would you care for a moment what happens to me now? The baby is gone, Orochi-sama."

"I know that," Orochi said shortly, "But there are two reasons to protect you. The first is that Byakuya has ordered me to personally see to your survival."

"What? Really? Why?" Tetsuya asked, looking confused.

"You ask too many questions. Ask him, if you survive. But in any case, he wants you to survive."

"And what is the other reason?" the blue-eyed prisoner asked softly.

Orochi's eyes met his quietly for a moment.

"Because you belong to me," he said, turning away, "And no one has the right to take what is mine. Just remember that when you reach safety."

Tetsuya swallowed hard and nodded. Orochi led the two to a small, hidden room that bore tiny openings in the wall, allowing them to view the area of the front gates. He removed two power limiters and placed one on each prisoner's wrist.

"What are you doing?" Tetsuya asked.

"You have never used your shinigami powers, ne?" he said shortly, "If I just release the seal on your powers, you would likely panic and damage yourself in the attempt to use them. This will allow you to use the simple attacks and defenses I know you have seen the guards use numerous times. It will allow your zanpakutous to assist you, even if you cannot yet connect with them."

"It will also make us easy to subdue once we are free and you want to gain control over us," Naoki concluded, meeting Orochi's eyes solemnly.

"That too," Orochi admitted, smirking, "But there really is no choice. You are not familiar with your powers, so you could very well endanger yourselves and the ones coming to your rescue. Your other option is to return to your cells and either be executed before the raid or be killed by the guards, once the fortress is aware of Byakuya's assault."

"I suppose we have no choice, then," Tetsuya said, squeezing Naoki's hand in warning, "We will do as you say, Orochi-sama."

"Good," Orochi said, turning back towards the chamber door.

"Orochi-san," Tetsuya said softly, stopping his cousin, "Why are you going out there? Isn't the prison master already suspicious? Why would you take a chance like that?"

He caught his breath softly at the look Orochi gave him.

"Are you worried, Cousin?" he asked in a mocking tone, "I am touched, of course. But I want to take steps to make sure that the prison master does not survive."

Tetsuya stared at him questioningly and Orochi let out an amused chuckle.

"Do you really need to ask?" he said, looking meaningfully at the blue-eyed prisoner, "He was responsible for the order to terminate all mixed blood pregnancies, and he ordered your death. Your fate, and the fate of any child we made was rightfully in my hands. He interfered with that, and he is going to die painfully for it."

Tetsuya shivered softly under Orochi's glaring eyes.

"Any more useless questions?"

"N-no," Tetsuya answered hesitantly, "But...I wish that you would not go."

"Why is that?" Orochi asked, glancing at Naoki, "Don't you want to be alone with Naoki?"

"I..."

"Yes, I have been aware all along that you two have been involved, and before you ask, I allowed it so that you would have someone to watch over you when I wasn't there. If I had had a problem with it, I wouldn't have allowed it. So, go on and have your fun. Just, be quiet about it."

He turned away again, but was again stopped by Tetsuya's voice.

"Orochi-sama, please..."

He struggled to think, biting at his lips.

"Y-you are powerful and we are not. Our chances of survival are better if we are with you."

Orochi's eyes narrowed and he laughed softly.

"You really don't want me to go?" he asked coyly, "Not even to make the man most responsible for the death of our baby pay with his life? And I have been awful to you. Everyone here would point that out to you. Are you really that concerned I won't come back? And if I don't, you still have your Naoki, no? Isn't he enough for you?"

Tetsuya's eyes widened, and he took a wary step back as Orochi approached him. Orochi slid a hand under his chin and raised his eyes, so their eyes met directly.

"Do you need us both to feed your insatiable desires, Tetsuya?"

"N-no, I...!"

Orochi pushed him back against Naoki, pinning him between the two and trapping Naoki against the wall as he plunged into Tetsuya's protesting mouth and plundered it hungrily.

"Very well, then," he said, fixing Tetsuya in place between the two, "Naoki and I will make sure you are well-fed before I go."

He turned his gaze on Naoki, making the young man bite at his lips nervously.

"Undress him."

"Y-yes, Orochi-sama," Naoki said reluctantly, slowly reaching for the tie at Tetsuya's waist.

"Hurry up, you," the black-eyed noble hissed softly, "Don't keep him waiting. Tetsuya is terribly hungry, ne?"

"I...am not so..."

"Oh, but you are," Orochi growled, "But don't worry. Naoki and I will see to that. We will not leave you neglected."

He dove into Tetsuya's protesting mouth again, forcing his tongue deep inside and savoring him, as his hands roamed over the pretty, white flesh that Naoki had bared.

"Prepare him," Orochi ordered, reaching down between his and Tetsuya's bodies to where their thickened, damp members rubbed together.

He captured the two in a strong hand and stroked them roughly as the two continued to kiss. Behind Tetsuya, Naoki kept his eyes carefully lowered, hiding his disgust at the other man's treatment of his lover.

"You needn't be so cautious," Orochi muttered impatiently, "He is well-used. Enter him from behind."

"N-no!" Tetsuya panted, "Orochi-sama, stop! This is...!"

Tetsuya reeled as Orochi's hand struck his face, then sank into his hair and pulled his head back roughly.

"You do what I tell you to do, half-blood!" he hissed, ignoring Naoki's instant protest, "Now, Naoki, before I lose my patience and hurt both of you!"

"Ah! Yes, Orochi-sama," Naoki said quickly, pressing forward and bring the head of his damp arousal to Tetsuya's entrance.

Tetsuya gave a pained moan as he was penetrated from behind, then cried out as Orochi's fingers pushed inside him as well, and worked to stretch him further.

"No! Please, stop, I can't!" Tetsuya pleaded

"Orochi-sama," Naoki began.

"Shut up, both of you!" Orochi snapped, thrusting his fingers in further and busying Tetsuya's moaning lips with fierce, biting kisses.

Naoki's hands found Tetsuya's and squeezed them supportively, and his gentle voice sounded in the younger man's ear.

"I'm sorry," he mouthed, barely audibly, "It will be over soon, Tetsuya. He will leave and the raid will come, then we can go to Byakuya-sama and make sure that man never reaches you again. Byakuya-sama will protect us. Have faith."

Tetsuya couldn't answer, but squeezed Naoki's hands gently in reply as Orochi moved into position and began to enter him as well. Tetsuya stiffened, groaning and panting. To his surprise, Orochi slowed and entered carefully, before pressing forward again and glaring down into Tetsuya's rounded eyes.

"Are you full enough now?" Orochi panted almost dizzily against his lips, his black eyes widened and his own body shaking with anticipation as he met Naoki's eyes again, " _Move!_ "

Tetsuya bit back a howl of protest, moaning loudly at the first of their movements, then released a shuddering cry and gripped Orochi's strong shoulders tightly as he and Naoki alternated their motions inside him. His legs wrapped reflexively around Orochi's tensed torso, and as Orochi's mouth found his again, both were surprised at the ferocity in Tetsuya's return kisses. Orochi's hands slid down his sweat-slicked, trembling body, caressing firmly, as the intensity of his glare softened.

_You are...enjoying this too?_

_Truly?_

He devoured Tetsuya's mouth with renewed hunger and deepened his thrusts, losing his breath at the very thought.

_Tetsuya, you are..._

His thoughts disappeared into a hard throb of pleasure as he climaxed, and his member spasmed repeatedly inside his cousin, making Tetsuya gasp at the blinding heat, then howl in climax as Naoki's release began as well.

Orochi kept the two prisoners trapped against the wall as Tetsuya's head fell onto his shoulder and his legs went weak. He felt a soft jolt inside as he realized that his cousin had let go of Naoki's hands, and was clenching the front of Orochi's guard uniform. Tetsuya's body trembled uncontrollably, and when Orochi finally stepped back, he started to slide to the floor, and was only stopped when Naoki's hands captured him, mid-fall. He could barely lift his head and Orochi's parting words to them echoed strangely in his head.

"I hope you are satisfied now, Cousin," he laughed softly, setting his clothes back in place, "I will be back. Just be prepared. When you see that the raid has begun, you run for the gates, whether I have returned yet or not."

Tetsuya shivered, and buried his face in Naoki's shoulder as his cellmate lifted him and carried him to a nearby sofa.

"Bastard!" Naoki hissed angrily as Orochi left the room, "Are you all right, Tetsuya?"

Tetsuya shivered with memory, a deep flush roaring across his face at what they had done.

_I am shameless._

_A disgrace._

_Some part of me...enjoyed that!_

_And that same part is scared he'll die._

_What is wrong with me?_

"Tetsuya?" Naoki said softly, brushing the hairs away from his sweaty face.

"I am...all right," he assured Naoki.

But some part of him wondered.

_Am I really?_

_What has Orochi-sama done to me?_


	5. Never to Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day of the prison raid finally arrives!

Tetsuya huddled close to Naoki's thin body, grateful for the comfort of the soft, warm bed in the room where Orochi had left them. They exchanged slow, gentle kisses, wanting to sleep, but far too excited and anxious as they contemplated their freedom.

"Where will you go?" Tetsuya asked softly, "Do you have any relatives outside of the prison who might help you?"

"I might, but I'll not go to them," the older youth said, shaking his head, "It is clear enough that they don't want me with them, so I will go to the Rukongai. I am sure that it will be much better than being locked in a cell. I will have freedom there. I will be able to walk wherever I want to and breathe fresh air. I suppose I will have to forage for food until I find a way to support myself, but it will still be better than this place."

He made a line of kisses along Tetsuya's throat.

"Where will you go? Will you go to Byakuya-sama's family? You are a Kuchiki, and Byakuya obviously wants the mixed bloods to be treated more fairly. You could go to him."

"But, why would I do that?" Tetsuya asked, nuzzling deeper into Naoki's gentle embrace, "I want to be with you. Wherever you go, I will go as well. Are you saying that you don't want me to go with you, Naoki?"

"Oh...no, not at all!" Naoki said, shaking his head fervently, "It is just that it seems the Kuchiki family might be welcoming to you, and I thought that if that was so, Tetsuya-san would want to know his family."

"It's not so important to me," Tetsuya sighed, "Beyond showing my gratitude to Byakuya-sama for coming to free us, I don't feel a connection to them. And besides..."

He looked back at the door with a worried expression.

"Orochi-sama is going to be there. You heard what he said, Noaki. He wants to recapture us. I am sure he will want us to continue serving him, and I don't want to gain my freedom, only to become his slave."

"You must be cautious of him," Naoki agreed, "He very much enjoyed having you serve him, and he performed such indecencies upon you. He is so obsessed with you as to make him quite reckless."

"I don't understand," Tetsuya said, frowning, "What do you mean?"

"Tetsuya-san is the reason why he has taken such a dangerous chance to return to slay the prison master."

"The prison master troubled him."

"The prison master ordered both the abortion of your and Orochi's child and your execution."

"I don't know why he made so much of our child," Tetsuya said sadly, "It is clear that he looks down on us mixed bloods. Why would he choose, then, to make one with me?"

Tears came to his eyes as he remembered again, the loss of his connection with the tiny, precious little life.

"The only one I want to make a baby with is Naoki," Tetsuya said firmly, "When we leave here, wherever we go, I will marry Naoki and have his child. We will make our own family and Orochi will not find us and torment us anymore."

Naoki smiled and kissed him again.

"That is a lovely dream for our future, Tetsuya-san. I think that will be my dream too."

"We know how to make things grow, so we could begin by finding a place to grow things, some to eat and some to sell so that we could someday have a house where there are lots of trees and a river."

"You make it sound wonderful, Tetsuya-san. I would be happy to share a life like that with you."

"We will, then," Tetsuya resolved, "Once we are free, we will."

Naoki smiled and nuzzled against his cheek, his breath warming Tetsuya's earlobe. He placed slow. sleepy kisses along the blue-eyed youth's throat and slipped his hands beneath Tetsuya's yukata to caress his warm genitals. Tetsuya met Naoki's lips hungrily, and his hands returned the gentle touches his lover gave him. Naoki teased Tetsuya's entrance very lightly, giving him a sympathetic look as the younger boy winced and caught his breath.

"I am sorry, Tetsuya-san," Naoki whispered, "Orochi-sama and I hurt you before, ne?"

"Only a little," Tetsuya assured him, "And besides, I want to be with you now."

"Then, we will make love," Naoki whispered, but this time, Tetsuya-san will take me."

Tetsuya bit his lip gently, his smile fading slightly.

"What is it?" Naoki asked.

Tetsuya lowered his eyes.

"It is nothing very important," he confessed, "It is just that to do that makes me worry I will hurt you, and I don't ever want to hurt you, Naoki."

"You won't hurt me," Naoki laughed, spreading his thighs and coaxing Tetsuya into settling on top of him.

He looked quietly and affectionately up into his lover's pretty, sapphire eyes.

"I am truly happy, Tetsuya-san," he whispered, smiling contentedly as he felt their bodies join, "Being anywhere with you makes me so happy inside that I forget everything else!"

"Being with Naoki makes me that happy too," Tetsuya whispered, moving his hips and watching the pleasure unfold slowly on Naoki's smiling face, "I love you."

"I love you too," Naoki moaned, his breaths quickening as their pleasure increased and began to overwhelm them.

They let themselves be overtaken, still looking deeply into each other's eyes, then fell into a contented sleep, forgetting all else but the wonderful feeling of being together and not locked away in their cell. Nothing moved but their chests rising and falling as they breathed, and the minutes counted down until the sound of the prison's alarms brought them awake again.

"Come quickly!" Naoki said, pulling Tetsuya to his feet and leading him down to the escape door that Orochi had shown them.

They peered out the hidden opening, watching until the sounds of fighting rose up nearby, and they spotted the incoming fighters.

"There he is!" Naoki hissed excitedly, "Over there! That is Byakuya-sama!"

"Are you sure?" Tetsuya whispered back.

"Yes, I saw a picture of him once while I was in one of the guard's rooms," the elder youth explained, "Come, Tetsuya, and stay close to me!"

They slipped out of the tower and moved into the brush, carefully avoiding the guards who had been distracted with fighting. Their bare feet made no sound as they hurried along, honing in on where their rescuers battled to reach them. They reached the end of the line of brush and peeked out, studying the movement of the fighters, and trying to discern the safest path.

"There doesn't seem to be anything we can do now, but run for him and don't stop," Naoki said softly, "Once you start running, you must keep running, no matter what happens."

Tetsuya nodded, his face paling as he observed the fighters.

"Come now! Run, Tetsuya-san!"

The two broke into a sprint, angling as far away from the fighting as they could and making no sound as they fled. Tetsuya fixed his eyes on the young noble prince, and headed towards him as fast as his thin legs could carry him. He caught his breath in surprise as Byakuya's eyes came to rest on them, and the Kuchiki heir flash stepped quickly in their direction.

"Get down!" he warned them, firing a heavy volley of kido over their heads.

Tetsuya felt the roar of a great explosion as one of the guards' attacks struck too close to them, then Naoki's body wrapped around him as both were taken off their feet and thrown to the ground. They crashed down onto the unforgiving ground, and for a moment, everything went black and quiet.

Tetsuya felt strong arms pull him free of Naoki, and he reached out frantically for the other boy.

"N-naoki!" he sobbed, "Wait!"

The arms around him tightened reassuringly, and the person holding him turned him away from the sight of the still, silent form that laid on the ground behind them.

"Sadao," the prince's voice said solemnly.

"I am sorry, Byakuya-sama," the elder man said sadly, "He is gone."

"N-no! Naoki!" Tetsuya cried, "He...!"

"He saved your life," Byakuya's voice whispered in Tetsuya's ear, "He pulled you down and protected you, and that is why you are alive."

Tetsuya started to object, but was stopped as another group of guards attacked. The Kuchiki heir set Tetsuya on his feet and ordered him back, but Tetsuya could only stare and feel tears run down his face as Sadao lifted Naoki's unmoving body and started towards him. A sudden motion behind Sadao made Tetsuya's heart shiver inside him. He spotted a wild-eyed guard, running at his rescuer, raising his hands to attack him.

Anger welled up inside him and he felt a roar of power inside him that exploded from his body and swallowed up the attacking guard. Several more appeared and flew at him, their weapons slashing and kido firing from their hands, and Tetsuya was thrown off his feet again as Sadao raced towards him.

A sudden movement off to his side, caught Tetsuya's attention, as Orochi appeared, and he could see that his cousin was limping badly.

"Get down, you fool!" Orochi shouted, firing a heavy blast of kido in front of him, as several more guards attacked.

Two men rose up suddenly in front of him, and Tetsuya felt the air go out of his lungs as he saw their swords sweep down in his direction. An odd, animal's squeal sounded, and blue light flashed in front of Tetsuya's eyes as the animal who had made the sound appeared as though from thin air and leveled the guards with a shattering blast of what looked to be ice blades. Tetsuya screamed in pain, power blazing through his thin body and sending him crashing to the ground as Orochi landed next to him.

"What was that!" Sadao panted, staring at the creature.

The last thing Tetsuya saw as he lost consciousness was the shape of a tall, black stallion.

XXXXXXXXXX

Tetsuya rose out of the fog of deep sleep and could feel that he had been healed, bathed and dressed in a clean yukata and laid in the softest, most comfortable bed he had ever lain in. He couldn't move, even to open his eyes, but the voices around him were reassuringly calm and gentle.

"He is beginning to regain consciousness," Tetsuya heard a soft, male voice say, "He will still be somewhat senseless for a while, but that is probably best, because of the damage done to his spirit centers when his powers came on so suddenly. Will you explain again what you saw, Byakuya-sama?"

"There was a flash of blue light around him, and then the stallion appeared in front of him and killed the attacking guards."

"And then?"

"The boy collapsed and lost consciousness. The horse stood over him, guarding him. We had a difficult time calming him so that we could treat the boy's injuries."

"Did he have any lucid moments?"

"He managed to tell me that his name is Kuchiki Tetsuya. I found him listed in the prison's system as the son of Kuchikis Takao and Kiko. Takao was my father's cousin. They were like brothers, before Takao and Kiko mysteriously disappeared. I had hoped to find them, but Takao was executed long ago and Kiko succumbed to illness several years ago. I heard from my father that Kiko was with child when she disappeared, so I sent Orochi in with orders to find and protect Tetsuya until we could free the prisoners."

Orochi-sama was sent...to protect me?

But he was so cruel!

Still, he did make sure the other guards did not touch me. And he said that he wanted Naoki to watch over me. He brought medicine when I was ill and he came for me when they took my baby and locked me in the pit. He made sure that I was not executed and I saw he had been hurt when he went to confront the prison master.

I don't understand him.

I don't understand him at all.

Did Orochi-sama love or hate me? Or did he only protect me because he was given orders?

"But you say that there is evidence this boy was abused?" Byakuya's voice went on.

"Yes. He was not so much physically abused, but he was used sexually. There are signs that maybe some time ago it was forced, but although he seemed to have had sexual relations recently, it was consensual."

"Or perhaps he just stopped fighting it," Byakuya sighed, "But he is safe now and I will not let him be harmed again...by anyone."

There was a long silence, then Byakuya's voice sounded again.

"Is there an indication of who it was he was with?"

"He was with the deceased boy, whom you had brought back here and prepared for burial. And he was also with another man, but one who knew how to protect his identity. The reiatsu markers were obcured."

"So, we have no proof," Byakuya said in a disgusted tone, "I feel responsible in that I sent him. But we weren't able to get anyone else close to the boy."

"Well, he did keep the boy alive, and he is going to be all right with rest and good care. He has the capacity to become powerful, if trained properly."

"I will see to that," Byakuya said firmly, "I will see that no one will abuse him ever again!"

"I am just sorry that he and the others who escaped will not have proper justice."

"Well, we may not be able to convict the ones who tormented them, but they are free now."

Tetsuya slipped back into a haze, drifting in and out of awareness and uncertain how many days passed. He was aware of the coming and going of the soft spoken clan healer, Michio, and the young prince, Byakuya who visited often. From time to time, he felt a darker, more disquieting presence, one that on the one hand, repulsed him, but on the other, held a deep, profound ability to excite his senses. And he heard Orochi's voice, though he couldn't tell if it was real or imagined.

"You are not to speak of what happened between us in the prison," he warned Tetsuya, "There will be no evidence of it ever found, so no one will believe you. You will say nothing of it. I cannot take you from him now. He has too many protections around you. But...we will be together again, Tetsuya. We will. It is only a matter of time."

"What are you doing in here?" Byakuya's voice said, breaking into Tetsuya's reverie.

Tetsuya's eyelids fluttered and his eyes slowly opened. He blinked several times and found Byakuya standing in the doorway and Orochi kneeling next to him.

"I was only visiting him. I was responsible for watching over him in the prison. I wondered..."

"You wondered if he had said anything," Byakuya said darkly, "Orochi, I am not fooled. Go. And do not come near Tetsuya again."

"That is some show of gratitude for the risks I took to protect him, cousin," Orochi said, frowning.

"I should kill you for abusing him!"

"What makes you think I abused him?" Orochi asked, meeting Tetsuya's eyes meaningfully.

Byakuya turned and looked at him, and Tetsuya heard Orochi's warning ringing in his ears.

There will be no evidence of it ever found, so no one will believe you.

He shivered softly, looking up at Byakuya and struggling for words.

"I...I don't remember so much," he confessed, "Everything is very fuzzy in my mind."

"I am sure things will clear as you get well, Cousin Tetsuya. Rest now. Rest and be assured, no one will hurt you here."

He turned back to Orochi.

"Go."

Tetsuya shivered again, listening as Orochi's footsteps faded.

Byakuya sat down on the bed and looked at him quietly for a long time.

"Tetsuya," he said finally, "I know that he hurt you. And I think you are afraid to say so because he might try to do so again. But, I will protect you. Even though we cannot prove his crimes to the council, you have escaped him. And I won't let him or anyone else hurt you."

"Thank you, Byakuya-sama!" Tetsuya said, seeking the other youth's arms and holding on tightly.

He felt dark eyes watching him and looked out the garden doors to find Orochi standing at a distance and watching him.

This is not over, those eyes seemed to say, It will never be over.

You belong to me.


	6. An Honorable Proposal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tetsuya's arranged marriage is interrupted by the beginning of the war with the quincies.

(a hundred years later)

"I thought that I would find you here," Kuchiki Sadao said, moving to Tetsuya's side and following his gaze down to the grave marker in front of them.

He studied the young man's handsome profile, the lovely pale visage and wide, sapphire eyes that radiated something between love and lingering sadness. His taller, fully grown body was slender and strong. The wavy wisps of his silken black hair fluttered in the gentle breezes, the only ruffling of the strength and calm that surrounded him. He wore the dark blue livery of the Kuchiki House Guards and wore at his hip a blue steel sword, bearing a hilt that was the color of his eyes. A tall black Arabian stallion stood quietly outside the family cemetery gates, his sapphire eyes fixed on the two and his ears cutely perked.

"Byakuya told us about the Yukihana clan leader's proposal. Mai and I were curious about your thoughts on the matter."

Tetsuya smiled at the elder shinigami affectionately.

"Were you worried I would be unhappy about it?" he asked, breathing in the calming scent of the grass and flowers, "You do not have to worry, Father. I am content to marry Yukihana Hiro, if that is what Byakuya-sama deems is best for clan relations."

Sadao sighed and slipped an arm around the younger man's shoulders, and was quietly acknowledged as Tetsuya's head tilted slightly more in his direction.

"Segare, please listen to me. I have been your father ever since you emerged from out of Itamigiri. Mai and I have loved and cared for you every step of the way of your recovery, but this one last step you must take, is one that should not be an act of duty, but love."

"Yukihana Hiro is reputed to be a gentle and kind leader," Tetsuya said, looking down at Naoki's marker, "Why would I not love a person like him?"

"But he is a stranger to you. You have only met once."

"And my impression of him is that he will not be unkind to me. Besides, many to most noble marriages are marriages of convenience. I should be considered fortunate to have a clan leader ask for my hand, given how many clans still look down on my kind."

"Ah, Tetsuya. We only want the best for you. You know that Byakuya-sama would not mind if you politely refused the proposal. If it is not required, you should not be so willing to give up your love in this way. You have a choice. That is all I am saying. We are not at odds with Hiro-sama's clan. And he does not seem the kind to hold a grudge if you did not accept."

"I understand your concern," Tetsuya said calmly, "But the truth is that I do not think I will fall in love again. I loved Naoki, and my heart broke when he gave up his life so that I would live. I will not endanger another lover like that again."

Sadao shook his head, frowning.

"But Segare, weren't you the one who told your mother and me that we had to move forward from the pain of having lost our son? We suffered badly when our Mitsuru was killed, but had we not been able to mourn him and move forward, we wouldn't have such profound joy as we know having adopted you into our subfamily! In the same way, as much as you will always love and respect your Naoki, you too must open your heart to let love back inside. You are such a beautiful young man. It is no wonder that Hiro-sama noticed you."

"And perhaps, given time, we will come to love each other," Tetsuya concluded, "I will not close my heart to him, should we wed. I think that it shall be a happy union."

"Ah, very well," Sadao sighed, shaking his head, "I imagine you are decided, and I will not go on questioning your choice. Just, do give this a bit more thought before you answer him."

"I will, Father," Tetsuya promised, laughing softly.

They went quiet for several minutes, listening to bird calls and the sound of the breeze in the trees. Then, Tetsuya turned and started back in the direction of the manor with Sadao on one side and the stallion following a few steps behind on the other.

"I hear that the household has been placed on high alert," Sadao commented, "So, he thinks there will be trouble?"

"I am afraid so," Tetsuya said, his eyes darkening, "The household guards are being instructed to be prepared to evacuate the manor on a moments notice. Routes have been planned to the evacuation site, and stores have been placed. It is a serious situation with the quincies. Byakuya-sama is certain that hostilities will break out soon. Soutaichou was informed by the enemy that they would invade in five days. There is some concern it will be even less than that. There is a high amount of chatter about the upper Rukongai of sightings of strangers hovering outside the Seireitei barrier."

"That does sound very ominous."

"Yes," Tetsuya agreed, "but we are prepared. As soon as word is given, or upon first word of invasion, the manor will be evacuated. It is for everyone's protection, as this enemy appears to be a powerful group of quincies, and they have an ability that may nullify use of our bankai."

Sadao's expression became even more troubled.

"I do not like how this is developing," he commented, his mind drifting to thoughts of his younger daughter, "Do you think that Kohana will be all right?"

Tetsuya smiled.

"She came home this morning for a weeklong leave. If hostilities break out, she will serve with the house guards. I will watch over her, Father."

"I know you will. I understand that she is talented, and meant to serve as a protector, but after losing Mitsuru the way we did..."

"It is hard to see another of your children place herself in harm's way," Tetsuya concluded.

"Yes."

Sadao let out a soft, worried breath and gazed down the length of the forested trail ahead of them.

"Tetsuya, my apologies, but we are still preparing the subfamily to respond if there is trouble. I must leave you now."

The two exchanged a warm embrace and the elder man flash stepped away, leaving Tetsuya walking quietly alongside his mount, his head bent and his eyes thoughtful. He went on for several steps, but paused, frowning, as a dark figure appeared from another trail that crossed his.

"Orochi," he greeted his black-eyed cousin in a low, barely civil tone, "What are you doing here?"

His elder cousin let out a huff of breath.

"My father sent me to report to Byakuya-sama that our subfamily has completed preparations."

"Then I will tell him. You needn't come to the manor. I will carry the message to him."

"I see you are as pleasant as usual, Cousin," Orochi commented.

"You are lucky I tolerate your presence this close to me," Tetsuya answered, his reiatsu flaring softly, "I haven't forgotten what happened before. And if you so much as blink the wrong way in my direction, I will show you how unpleasant I can be."

"Ah, Orochi said, frowning disapprovingly, "You have grown quite belligerent. But what would one expect, considering the savage blood that trickles through your veins, ne?"

Tetsuya didn't answer, but only glared at him out of the corner of one blue eye and continued walking. Behind him, Arashi's ears laid back, and a tendril of steam issued from one nostril in warning.

"See now," Orochi went on, glancing back at the stallion, "He has your same egregious manners. You seem to both forget that you would not be alive and walking around free, if it hadn't been for me."

Tetsuya let out a sharp, heated breath.

"If it had been up to you, Orochi, you would have only had me exchange the chains that bound me in the prisons for ones that bound me to your bed! I am not stupid enough to think for a moment that you had anything like feelings of affection for me. You despised me and you used my body for your own pleasure. You tormented me and looked down on me. And if I had lowered myself and let you have your way, I would still be weak and useless to anyone!"

Orochi moved closer, making Arashi growl softly with displeasure as he breathed his next words into his cousin's flushed ear.

"Oh, but is bodily pleasure not a useful thing Tetsuya? Or is it that you do not remember what pleasure is? How long has it been since anyone touched you?"

Tetsuya didn't answer, but only glared at him and kept walking.

"Or perhaps you won't be lonely for much longer," Orochi went on, "I understand that Yukihana Hiro has offered to take you off our hands."

"That is none of your business," Tetsuya snapped.

"Ah, but it is," Orochi said, his eyes glinting and his expression one of complete seriousness, "I told you that you are mine. You can continue your celibacy for as long as you want, Tetsuya, but no one else will ever touch you but me!"

"Get away from me!" Tetsuya hissed, vaulting onto Arashi's back and setting his heels to the horse's sides.

Arashi gave an equine snarl and plunged forward, nearly trampling the black-eyed shinigami.

"Go ahead and run," he whispered, watching the two disappear down the trail, "You've been running form me for a hundred years and you haven't escaped me. You never will."

XXXXXXXXXX

Tetsuya slid down off of Arashi's back as the stallion entered the manor grounds, then sent his equine partner off with a gentle pat on the sweating shoulder.

"Go and cool off now."

Are you sure that we should separate? Arashi's voice whispered in his mind, I do not like that man. And he said that he was coming here.

The house guards will just take his message and send him on his way," Tetsuya responded, glancing warily back at the forested trail they had come down, "Byakuya-sama is at his division and unavailable. That man will have no reason to stay."

Good. The sooner he is gone, the better. I don't like the way he speaks to you.

"We share a...complicated history," Tetsuya confessed, "from before you emerged. He was assigned to protect me in the prison, until I could be freed. But he also tormented me. It was very strange, Arashi. I never knew if that man loved or hated me. I still don't know. His words say one thing, but his actions don't always match up."

Don't torment yourself, thinking about it, Master. I won't let him hurt you.

"Thank you, Arashi," Tetsuya said softly, watching as the stallion trotted away.

He moved on to the nearest guard post and greeted the guard quietly.

"How goes the watch, Tsutomu?" he asked.

"It is quiet," said the guard, "There has been no word of additional sightings, but a warning has been issued."

"Oh?"

"They say that when they analyzed the pattern of appearances, it did seem that many were close to the homes of noble lords. There is concern within the Noble's General Council that our families will be directly targeted when hostilities break out."

"Hmmm, then it would be best, I think, if we prepare to move out now. Double the guard on our escape path, and send word to all of the subfamilies to be ready to begin the evacuation upon our signal."

He went quiet as the back gate opened and Orochi arrived in the gardens.

"Go on. Ken will be here momentarily to relieve you anyway."

"Yes, sir!" the guard said, bowing, then flash stepping away.

"Is there trouble, Tetsuya?" Orochi asked, looking around, "You look spooked, and by more than my presence."

"Your presence isn't enough to spook me," Tetsuya replied icily, "But, yes, there is going to be trouble. The quincies are looking to have positioned themselves to attack the noble clans directly. And I do not imagine that those our ancestors tried to force into extinction are going to spare our women and children. They will kill everyone in their path. You had best return home and help your family prepare."

"I need to speak to Byakuya-sama before I go."

"Then you will have to seek him at the sixth division, as he has housed himself there with his squad for the duration of the alert," Tetsuya answered brusquely, "Now, if you will excuse me..."

"Wait," Orochi said, laying a hand on Tetsuya's arm.

"Don't touch me!" Tetsuya snapped, pulling away, "Don't you ever lay hands on me!"

Orochi started to answer, but stiffened and went silent as an explosion sounded in the distance and the ground rumbled warningly. A moment later, the house alarms began to shriek.

"They are coming!" Tetsuya shouted to the nearest guard, Give the evacuation signal!"

Another sharp, shrieking wail joined the first, and all around the manor, staff and family left off their tasks and grabbed their prepared packs. They flash stepped to the garden, where Tetsuya began directing them to the escape path.

"You really should go," he told Orochi, noticing that the other man was still beside him, "You will want to help get your family and staff to safety."

"Everything will be locked down and they will be gone before I get back," Orochi said, "There is no use in going now."

"Then, go to the evacuation site for the main family," Tetsuya said shortly, "I don't have time to deal with you now!"

He moved quickly to the side of a small child who had fallen while running alongside her mother.

"There now," he said, smiling comfortingly and gathering the things she had dropped, "You will be all right. Go with your mother. We will be guarding your path. Don't be afraid."

"Th-thank you, Tetsuya-san!" the girl said, holding her pack tightly and scampering to her mother.

He heard Orochi speak, but could make no sense of the words as more explosions sounded, and screams broke out nearby.

"Go on now. Move quickly and do not stray from the path!" he told the retreating shinigamis.

"Tetsuya-san! They have broken through the main gate!" shouted a bloodied guard, who had appeared near them, "We can't stop them! They said they are going to kill every man, woman and child!"

Tetsuya's lips tightened and he glanced at Orochi.

"If you want to be useful, then stay here and make sure everyone gets away safely!"

He turned and ran for the manor gates, followed by a group of house guards.

"Make sure everyone is out!" Tetsuya shouted, "I will hold them off for as long as I can!"

He turned the corner, heading for the manor entry and setting several escape forms as Arashi appeared at his side and he sensed Orochi behind him.

"I told you to..."

"They are all out," Orochi said, cutting him off, "We only need to fend them off until the last house check is completed."

Tetsuya ignored him and advanced on the white clad form that had broken through the gates.

"Hold!" he commanded the other, "Do not come any closer!"

"Do you think I fear you, shinigami?" the quincy said in an oddly calm voice, "I am going to annihilate you and everyone here!"

Tetsuya felt a shiver slice through him as reiatsu flares of the fighting and dying began to reach him.

"You feel it, don't you?" the quincy hissed softly, moving forward, "The noble families are falling. I just came from your General Council Hall, where I slaughtered nearly half of those gathered. You are no match for me, shinigami...you alone."

"He is not alone," Orochi said, drawing his weapon and sending it wordlessly into release.

Four large black snakes emerged and shot forward, bearing down on the quincy, who only watched calmly as they curled around his limbs and sank their teeth in.

"You shouldn't have let them bite you," said Orochi, "That will be your last mistake!"

He launched himself at the quincy, an was stunned to see he was laughing. Behind him, Tetsuya sensed what was about to happen and flash stepped forward. The quincy's hand extended and took hold of Orochi's kimono, then revealed a shining blue weapon in his other hand that he thrust into the black-eyed shinigami's chest. The quincy started to laugh, then paused staring as Orochi's body turned to water and splashed to the ground.

"What?"

Tetsuya settled into one of the escape forms he had left and watched as Orochi materialized next to him.

"I suppose I owe you some gratitude," Orochi said, glaring at the surprised quincy,

"If you are that reckless again, I won't save you," Tetsuya snapped, scowling.

He flash stepped away, leaving Orochi gazing after him, a sly smile rising on his lips.

"Orochi-san!" called one of the house guards, "The last check is confirmed. Everyone is out. All house guards are protecting the evacuation route, but we must hurry and go, ourselves before we are trapped here!"

"Go!" Orochi ordered the guard, "I will get Tetsuya out."

He watched the man disappear, then moved back to where the quincy and Tetsuya were engaged.

"That was an interesting move," the quincy observed, "It was difficult to defend against, but now that I know you can move that way, I will be prepared."

"And what makes you think that 'being prepared' is going to save you?" Tetsuya hissed, bringing his weapon to bear.

"You know," the quincy went on, "Perhaps instead of protecting your foolish comrade, you should have let me kill him and you might have landed a blow on me. But your foolish emotions got in the way and stole your one chance to defeat me. Don't think you will escape death now, shinigami."

"Go ahead and attack me," Tetsuya taunted him, "You will not be able to strike a blow. And the more time we spend, exchanging useless strikes, the more time there is for the ones I protect to reach safety. Come then, I am ready!"

The quincy frowned as four large snakes surrounded him and coiled warningly.

"What is this?" he said, frowning, "I thought you would be smarter than to try the same useless ability twice."

"I didn't," Orochi said mockingly, laughing as the coiled snakes turned their red eyes on the quincy, freezing him in place.

Orochi slashed at the trapped quincy, pouring all of his strength into the blow. But he was stymied again as the quincy broke free and took aim on him again. And once again, he felt Tetsuya's hand touch him, and he was fired alongside the younger man, into another escape form.

"I told you to go!" Tetsuya said angrily, "You are doing no good. Your attacks obviously cannot hit him."

"Oh, and yours are doing so much better, Cousin," Orochi replied, shaking his head, "We need to find a way to get through whatever protects him from our strikes."

"I noticed something," Tetsuya said quietly, "The only time he has moved from that spot was that first time I moved in to rescue you. There was danger in that moment. He was vulnerable in some way. That's the truth of it, or he wouldn't have moved."

"Well, he was about to attack me."

Tetsuya's eyes widened.

"That's it! He cannot do both at once. We have to get him to attack one of us, while the other lies in wait!"

"I'll act as decoy," Orochi said, flash stepping away.

"Baka! That won't work!" Tetsuya mused, "He knows we are together."

He paused, reaching out with his senses.

Arashi, are the family members protected?

Yes, the stallion's voice answered, but, Tetsuya, more than a few of the house guards have fallen. I am coming back for you.

Tetsuya moved out from the cover of a corner of the main building and positioned himself for attack, watching as Orochi taunted the quincy, trying to get him to attack.

He is not invested in this battle, the blue-eyed shinigami mused, He is playing with us as though waiting for something. This gives me an ominous feeling...

"What's the matter," Orochi said calmly, gazing into the quincy's deadly eyes, "Are you just going to stand there all day? I have better things to do. So, take your best shot. Go ahead."

"Your ploy will not work," the quincy said mockingly in reply, "Your comrade will not be able to cut me. You know that. Why don't you give up?"

He laughed as Tetsuya appeared to his side and wrapped a hand around his wrist.

"Tetsuya, what are you doing?" Orochi demanded, flash stepping towards the two.

"Foolish boy," the quincy hissed, using his free hand to grab the blue-eyed shinigami by the throat.

Blue light rose around his hand and the pressure on Tetsuya's throat increased painfully.

"You are going to die now," the quincy whispered, "Farewell, shinigami."

He made a sound of surprise and pain as Orochi's weapon sank into his body, then screamed and dropped to his knees. Tetsuya brought his weapon around to give a finishing blow, but gasped as the weapon failed to penetrate the quincy's reeling body.

"It's no good," Orochi said calmly, "Tetsuya, let's go. Can't you feel it? The Gotei is not able to stop them. We have to get to the evacuation site! Leave him and come."

Orochi turned away, leaving the badly injured quincy on the ground, and Tetsuya started to retreat with him, but froze, staring, as he felt a tremendous release of power, then the disappearance of a heartbreakingly familiar reiatsu.

"B-byakuya-sama!" he gasped, reeling.

That shock was followed by two more.

"Renji-san! Rukia-chan!" he whispered, his face going pale.

He locked eyes with Orochi, who had turned back towards him at the shift in reiatsu. He watched as horror changed to fury on Tetsuya's youthful face and flash stepped towards him.

"Don't! Don't do it! Stop!" he roared, as Tetsuya fired himself in the direction in which he had felt Byakuya's life force diminish, "It's too late, and we can't kill them like this, Tetsuya! You'll only be destroyed, you fool!"

He managed to catch the younger man around the waist, and quickly dragged him in the direction of the encampment.

"Stop it!" he reprimanded his struggling cousin, "Tetsuya, you can't help them. You know that. And don't you feel it? There are endless more coming and nothing to stop them. We have to reach the encampment and offer them our protection, or we will all share in our leader's fate!"

"You are only saying that because you hate him," Tetsuya snapped back, "you have ever since he got me away from you! Now let me go, you bastard! I am going to him!"

"Very well. I see you won't be stopped any other way."

Tetsuya's eyes widened as a heavy shock of kido roared through his body, stunning him and leaving him collapsed in his cousin's arms.

"Idiot, you only would have died," Orochi huffed, lifting the unconscious man and turning.

He went still as he found himself face to face with a panting and enraged black stallion.

What are you doing to him? Put him down!

"What do you think I am doing, you brainless beast!" Orochi said disdainfully, "I am saving his life. They would have destroyed him."

So very generous of you, Arashi's voice said dryly, Put him on my back and get away from us. I will carry Tetsuya to the encampment.

"Ah, and leave me to my devices?" Orochi said, smiling wryly, "You share his charm, Arashi."

You hurt him before. I won't let you do that again.

The ground rumbled around the three, and screams sounded all around them.

"And how do you think your master will feel to know you abandoned me to death?"

He will not waste his tears on you. You don't deserve them.

The first of the foot soldiers appeared in the distance and spotted them. He called out to his comrades, who fired their arrows at them. Arashi reared and lowered his head, then fired a volley of ice blade from his nose and mouth. The quincy that Orochi and Tetsuya had been facing before, appeared suddenly off to their right, raising an odd, metallic medallion.

"You are using a bankai?" he mused, "But you are not a shinigami. Still, you will regret exposing your power to my medallion!"

Arashi howled and reared again as the medallion flared to life. The quincy's expression darkened, and he frowned as Arashi loosed another volley of ice blades.

"It doesn't work on him?" Orochi mused, watching curiously as the stallion turned his head.

Get on, quickly! We're getting Tetsuya to safety. I don't usually use this power in front of others, but there are too many, even for my bankai.

Orochi lifted Tetsuya onto the stallions back and climbed up behind him, holding on tightly and staring raptly as black wings sprouted from the horse's back. He gasped at the feeling of dizziness that swept over him as Arashi rose into the air, firing off another round of ice blades and turning away.

A huge wall of quincy arrows followed as Arashi soared away. He tightened his wings and shortened them to gain more speed, but gave an equine scream as they started to close in.

"Kami...!" Orochi breathed strickenly, holding Tetsuya in a death grip as the quincy power struck them and Arashi squealed and started to fall.

The stallion managed to angle his body and wings to level out somewhat and threw himself over a nearby lake as he came crashing down. Orochi shattered the kido that held them to the horse's back and hauled on Tetsuya's limp form, reaching blindly for the water's surface. The added weight of the other shinigami pulled him lower in the water and he kicked his feet hard, his lungs aching as he struggled harder. He began to lose sensation in his body and his lungs screamed for air. He looked down at Tetsuya, his black eyes wide as he realize the choice he was going to have to make.

I can't let go.

He hated the words. They sounded weak, as though he was nothing without that other person. He tried to let go, but his hand wouldn't release. Consciousness began to leave him and he managed a short inward chuckle as his breath left him and the water came in.

I knew you would be the death of me, Tetsuya.

Everything disappeared in an odd, blue haze. And the last thing that registered was the warm pressure of Tetsuya's hand grasping his.


	7. Here, at the End of Eveything

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tetsuya is devastated by the disappearance of Byakuya's reiatsu, and is trapped with Orochi for the duration of the initial battle.

_I am...still breathing?_

_How can that be?_

_I was sinking down into darkness, a place blacker than my heart._

_But I felt your hand tighten on mine, Tetsuya._

_Did you save me, yet again?_

_Why?_

Orochi heard a very soft sound of deep, soulful regret and tried to move. At first, all he could do was to open his eyes and let them adjust to the dark interior of the place he found himself in. A gentle kido light illuminated the place enough that he could see that the walls were made of some kind of porous stone. And he still smelled water.

_Where am I?_

_What is this place?_

_And you are still here with me, Tetsuya?_

He heard another soft sound of despair and was taken back in time.

_"The baby is gone, Tetsuya," he told the youth, his voice flat and toneless...tired, "There is nothing you can do. Crying and starving yourself isn't going to bring him back."_

_Tetsuya didn't answer, but only continued his soft, muted sounds of misery._

_"You have to let this go or you will kill yourself with grief. And what sense is there in that? We all have unfulfilled wishes. And it isn't the wishes that die that should hold power over us. If you can wish for a child, then you can wish for another."_

_"N-no!" Tetsuya sobbed, his slender hands clenching painfully, "No, I could never feel this again...never! It is too much...to cruel to have my heart teased with fullness, only to return to so much emptiness! My body is weak and empty, and my heart is just as much so!"_

_He sat near Tetsuya, watching him clutch at the bedding and cry, trying to tell himself, as he had been told once by his own father, that such a thing was disgraceful. A strong man wouldn't carry on so. And in truth, though he recognized the inescapable fact that Tetsuya's body was weak, the youth's heart had always radiated strength...a fact which made him pleasant to possess. Yes, even when Tetsuya's body was bound, restrained and at its weakest and most vulnerable, his heart beat like a demon's. There was fire there, deep beneath the surface that only emerged when everything else was held back. It was the reason why he liked to bind the younger man so much. He found the mingling of those two things intoxicating. But when Tetsuya's heart fell into despair and became vulnerable too, Orochi felt pain. And before Tetsuya's heart could become strong again, that pain had to be dealt with._

_He moved closer to Tetsuya, and slipped a bracing arm around him, pulling him up so that he knelt on the bed, then shocking the youth by binding his hands in leather restraints._

_"Wh-what are doing? Don't! I will get...! I will become...! I cannot do that again!"_

_"Be quiet," Orochi answered in a low voice, "I won't get you pregnant again, Tetsuya. No one will."_

_"What?" Tetsuya asked, blinking and sending another tear rolling down his face, "What do you mean?"_

_He loosed the tie on the fine, blue yukata, baring the younger man and watching his body shiver in expectation. Tetsuya gave him a surprised look as he traced a shape over the prisoner's pale breast, over his heart._

_"You don't want to feel that kind of pain again, ne?" Orochi said, looking into Tetsuya's wide, devastated eyes, "As your master, I will not allow that kind of pain to reach you again."_

_"But...Orochi-sama likes to cause me pain, does he not? Orochi-sama feels my pain and it arouses him."_

_"You really don't understand, do you?" Orochi sighed, caressing the leather bonds with his fingertips and resting his head on Tetsuya's shoulder from behind, "I don't care how weak your body is and your pain isn't what arouses me."_

_"It...it is not?" Tetsuya asked, looking confused._

_"No, you fool," Orochi went on, reaching around to caress the snake shaped marking he had made over Tetsuya's heart, "This is what arouses me."_

_Tetsuya turned his head slightly, gazing at his cousin silently._

_"Your heart. Even though your body is weak, your heart keeps beating. As much as I tie you down and cause you pain, it only beats harder and grows stronger. Anything that strengthens it, I will accept. But anything that weakens it," he breathed into the youth's blushing ear, "I will destroy!"_

_It was as much of an admission as he would ever allow himself._

_"That marking is a seal," Orochi told Tetsuya, "Until I remove it, you are in no danger of having your heart broken that way."_

_Tetsuya stared at him as if he had gone mad. His fingers trembled slightly as he touched the marking questioningly._

_"Now, then, I have relieved you of the need for worry. It is your turn to show me your gratitude, Tetsuya," he said, sliding his fingers into the younger man's hair and curling a hand around the back of his neck._

_Tetsuya hesitated, still looking into Orochi's depthless black eyes wonderingly. Finally, a slow, tremulous smile touched his lips, and he lowered himself between his cousin's parted thighs._

_"Thank you, Orochi-sama," he whispered, his breath tickling the sensitive skin of Orochi's nether region and causing an instant, powerful reaction._

_The words continued to echo in Orochi's piqued mind as Tetsuya pleasured him_

_This is what I love about you._

_Tetsuya, I..._

_His eyes closed and his mind went blank as Tetsuya's warm ministrations brought him to completion._

_This is dangerous._

_"Orochi-sama?"_

_"What is it?"_

_"You look...unhappy. Did I not please you?"_

_"Take off that yukata and go, Tetsuya."_

_"O-orochi-sama?"_

_"Go back to your cell. Let Naoki comfort you. Go now, Tetsuya."_

_"Y-yes, Orochi-sama."_

_There was a long, silent pause, then Tetsuya's voice sounded again._

_"Erm, Orochi-sama?"_

_"What is it?"_

_"I cannot leave until you unbind me."_

_"Hmmm," Orochi mumbled, pulling the younger man down and wrapping his body around him, "Then, I suppose there is no choice but to let you stay a bit longer."_

"Tetsuya."

His cousin acted as though he hadn't heard. Orochi breathed in more deeply and managed, despite the pain, to turn his head slightly. His eyes found Tetsuya's battered and disheveled body leaning up against the stone wall, partially facing him. He could see tears streaming down the curves of the younger man's face, and that he was shivering. His sword arm rested in a makeshift sling, and his top was opened, revealing his bruised chest and torso.

"Tetsuya," he said again, trying to turn onto his side.

Pain rocketed through his abused body and he went still for a moment, closing his eyes.

_It felt like we crashed into stone instead of water, though I know it was just the water._

"You shouldn't move," Tetsuya said, turning his head aside so that his tears weren't so obvious, "You suffered several cracked ribs and a concussion. I healed them, but you should rest."

"Where are we?"

"Under the water."

"Under?"

"I regained consciousness and found that we were beneath the surface of the water. I used my power so that we could breathe and searched until I found this place. There is air that comes down from the surface, but there are no openings to pass through. No one without an ability like mine will be able to reach us. We will be safe here while we heal."

Orochi took several more steadying breaths, then lifted his complaining body so that he could sit, rested against the wall and facing the younger shinigami. Tetsuya gazed at him quietly in the half light.

"The Gotei 13 has been defeated," he said solemnly, "The Seireitei is in ruins. Our homes have been completely destroyed."

"How do you...?"

"I keep several escape waterforms in different places. Some of them survived and I was able to..."

"You left me here?" Orochi hissed, his eyes darkening, "What if you hadn't been able to return? You fool!"

"I didn't leave," Tetsuya corrected him, "I only used the waterforms to look. The battles seem to have ended, for now. As soon as we are recovered enough, we should be able to move safely to the evacuation site."

"Were you able to 'see' that place too?"

"Yes, I had placed a waterform there. The family looks to be safe."

"Why do we not use your waterform, then, to go there?"

"I cannot connect with Arashi," Tetsuya explained.

"Why does that matter?" Orochi asked, frowning, "What is that beast, anyway, Tetsuya? He has never left your side since he appeared that day, when Byakuya's forces stormed the prison."

"I am not sure how to explain that," Tetsuya confessed, "Except to say that Arashi seems to bear that part of my power that my weakened body could not contain. Perhaps it is best to say that he is a manifestation of my will to fight, which outstrips my body's ability to manage the extremes of power."

"So, he is a part of you," Orochi said dryly, "I knew there was a reason he was so ornery and pig headed."

"Neither of us will willingly let another control our fate," Tetsuya said firmly, "But, I cannot connect with his mind. I cannot tell whether he is merely unconscious or...worse."

"And this makes you unable to use your powers?" Orochi mused, "Why?"

"I am able to use healing kido and the like, but losing our connection so suddenly shocked my systems. I feel burning pain inside when I try to use my waterforms. I can manage to look through them, but I cannot move through them like I usually do. But, I am sure that, as I heal, I will be able to manage that, and we can reach the encampment."

"But, in the meantime, we are trapped here," Orochi concluded.

"We are not trapped," Tetsuya said, blinking slowly, "I can still breathe under the water. We can leave that way, at any time, but until we are healed, it would be inadvisable. We don't know what forces are still in the area, though the battles seems to have ended, and we are in poor shape for fighting."

"You have that right," Orochi agreed, "We took a beating when Arashi was brought down over the water. It was like crashing into solid rock."

"But it gave us cover so that we could escape our enemies. And here, we are safe to conduct our healing."

Orochi nodded.

"Come here, then, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya gave him a look of warning and did not move from where he knelt.

"You are not going to touch me."

Orochi let out an impatient sigh.

"Your sword arm is obviously broken, and you probably have a few cracked ribs, yourself," he said, frowning, "Do you really want to just sit there and hurt? And besides, your healing will take longer without intervention. You can't heal yourself. Just don't be a nuisance and let me see to your wounds."

Orochi held his eyes for a long moment, then shot forward, ignoring the sharp pain that flashed in his body. He brought the younger man down onto the rock floor, glaring into his shocked eyes as Tetsuya loosed a pained cry.

"What are you doing?" he demanded furiously, "Orochi, stop!"

"You stop, baka! You're going to hurt yourself!"

"Orochi, let go of me!" Tetsuya shouted, struggling, then wincing and screaming in pain as he moved his injured arm the wrong way.

Orochi swiftly invoked a strong kido spell that bound Tetsuya's uninjured wrist to the rock wall.

"What are you doing?" Tetsuya demanded furiously.

He went still as a shock of kido paralyzed him, then could only stare up at his elder cousin in surprise and dismay.

"I am making sure you don't injure yourself any worse, you stupid fool! I know you think you hate me. You've worked very hard to convince yourself of that. You despise me so much that you would leave yourself in this condition, even though you know I could heal you. And I wouldn't put it past you to leave me trapped down here, while you swam away!"

Orochi leaned over his younger cousin, gathering green, healing reiatsu around his hands. He sent the gathered energy into Tetsuya's injured arm, cradling the broken section in his hand to keep it still as he worked. Unable to put up any more resistance, Tetsuya gazed up into Orochi's glittering black eyes, watching the flickers of emotion on his cousin's face.

"I...w-wouldn't have left you."

Orochi gave him a skeptical look.

"Tetsuya, I didn't stay alive as long as I have with as many enemies as I have made by being stupid and trusting. You may be able to put your complete faith in our cousin, Byakuya, and trust him with everything, but I will never be fool enough to do that. I am not weak. I do not need to lean on someone else to make myself stronger. And I am no man's fool. As wicked as another might be, I am more so still."

He went silent as tears rose in Tetsuya's eyes at the mention of Byakuya's name. A few leaked onto his face, and Orochi frowned and wiped them away.

"Stop that. You don't know that he died, and even if he did, you don't need him to survive."

"B-but..!"

"You didn't survive the prison because of him. He only opened the doors. You fought to stay alive while you were there. And someone else stood between you and death, Tetsuya. Someone else wouldn't let you die."

Tetsuya flinched as memories of torment, horrid illness, shattering loss and the looming threat of execution returned to him in full force.

"Orochi..."

"I protected you by making sure the other guards wouldn't touch you. I placed you with Naoki and let him be gentle with you."

"N-no!"

"I brought medicine when you were dying."

"S-stop!"

"I rescued you from the pit, and I made you stop crying when they killed our baby."

"Orochi, stop it!"

"And when they were going to execute you, I took you to a safe place and went back to kill the man who ordered our baby's death and your execution. I won't be untruthful. I did all of those things for my own reasons, some of them very selfish. But I did protect you, Tetsuya. You can make all of the excuses you want to try to vilify me, and I've always made it easy for you to do that. I let you hide behind Byakuya for a hundred years, watching you avoid love and saying it was because you lost that other boy. But Naoki is gone. Byakuya is gone. Outside this place, everything has fallen apart. There is no one else here for you, but me. Why don't you listen to the sounds of fate and realize the truth? You belong to only me. You always have, and you always will, Tetsuya."

Orochi closed the distance, lying down on top of his cousin's incapacitated body and burning his lips and mouth with a long, penetrating and scorching, open-mouthed kiss. Tetsuya's eyes blazed with rage and he turned his head away forcefully.

"Stop it! Don't do that! You bastard! That is not love. It's only poison!"

Orochi smiled wickedly and loosed a soft, mocking laugh.

"It may be poison, Tetsuya, but then, it is a poison you can't help but crave," he hissed softly, sinking into the younger man's angry mouth again.


	8. Flare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While in hiding together, Orochi and Tetsuya explore their complicated feelings for each other.

Tetsuya slept deeply, his body curled tightly into Orochi's firm embrace and lit gently with the continued infusion of his elder cousin's powerful reiatsu. His heart felt unnaturally cold and empty as he silently relived the breaking of the power of the Gotei 13, the disappearance of Byakuya's reiatsu, and the destruction of their home. And along with everything else that was shattered, Tetsuya's heart seemed to break apart, causing an explosion of gripping pain in the core of his very soul.

_I have always found my strength, even in the worst of times. Something inside me always allowed me to find that when I needed it. But now, it seems even that light that remained alive within me has gone out. And I don't even want to reach for the light again. I want to just sink into this blackness and disappear._

But something held him back...something powerful, relentless and darkly beautiful. It wrapped around him and permeated his tired soul, holding him carefully back from falling apart completely. And although it never pretended to substitute for his own strength, it somehow helped him to find it.

Every breath he took stung, and he could feel the tension in his youthful body as his mind was besieged with horrid nightmares, fevered images of his whole world falling to pieces and disappearing while he held on by a thread. He wanted to let go, and screamed the words repeatedly, only to feel the dark warmth around him intensify and a distant, deep, familiar voice pulling him back from the edges of complete madness.

"Tetsuya, you know that your despair will not help us to survive. Shhh, don't cry, Tetsuya. You have to be stronger than this. Go back to sleep. You have to regain strength enough to fight back."

Tetsuya let go of everything then, and sank down into the blackness, only retaining a vague awareness of the strong, relentless arms that still held him, the deep, soothing voice that steadied the hard swirl of dark emotions inside, and the black eyes that kept watch over him always. And even though he had once hated the feel of those eyes, now they seemed to anchor him, allowing him to drop down into nothingness for a time, to truly allow his body the rest it required. Over time, he felt the gradual return of lucidity and was surprised to find that he was no longer in any kind of pain, nor was he so cold as he had been upon first arriving in the underwater cave, dragging his injured cousin and himself from the icy depths of the lake that Arashi had crashed down into. He was wrapped deeply in strong, possessive arms...held in a way that he hadn't been for a hundred years. He felt dark, stern eyes watching him and let his own eyes slide open to meet them in the half light.

"Are you in any pain?" Orochi asked, his lowered voice echoing softly off the cave walls, "You seemed to sleep comfortably enough...once the nightmares ended and you stopped screaming."

"I am fine," Tetsuya answered shortly, piqued at the realization that he was still kido-bound to the cave wall, "But I want you to let me go."

Orochi shook his head firmly.

"No. I need assurance that I have a way out of here. I have too much to lose if you decide to abandon me."

"I told you I wouldn't do that," Tetsuya argued, his temper rising, "I may not like you, but you are family, and I am sworn to protect our clan...even you, Orochi."

His cousin gave him a sly smile.

"Well, as much as I know you to be a man of your word, I am not one who trusts foolishly. You know that. You will remain bound here until I decide that we are both restored enough to attempt reaching the others. And don't think of using waterforms to escape either. I placed a limiter on you so that you can't use shikai...until I decide it is time."

" _Bastard_!" Tetsuya snapped, making his cousin's smile warm.

You might as well get comfortable there, Tetsuya," Orochi instructed him, "You are going to be there for a while."

"There is no comfort anywhere near you!" Tetsuya spat scathingly, "I do not trust you any more than you trust me, but we are at an impasse while we are here."

"Except that, unhindered, you have the power to leave anytime you wish, and I, dear cousin, do not. I am only evening the odds."

"I am not the enemy!" Tetsuya hissed, "As much as I despise you, we are still family, Orochi. I do not have to like you to understand that it is my duty to protect you. But I cannot do that, kido chained to a wall like this! Unbind me at once!"

"I see," Orochi said, arching an eyebrow, "You are just as stubborn as you ever were in that prison...outright belligerent, I'd say. If we were back there, I would be allowed to beat you for such an offense, but since years have passed and the folk we live among are more civilized, I think I shall have to come up with another answer to your constant refusal to cooperate."

"I am surprised that, under the circumstances, you do not return to your inhumane ways just to drive home how much better than me you think you are!" Tetsuya seethed.

"Oh," Orochi said more softly, the corners of his lips turning upward, "You say that with such conviction, Tetsuya."

He slithered up along Tetsuya's side and loosed a puff of hot breath onto his restrained cousin's earlobe, smiling more widely as he felt the shudder that passed through Tetsuya.

"But are you saying that to me because you fear me reverting to being your tormentor...or is it that...you actually somewhat enjoyed the torments?"

"You demon! What are you saying?" Tetsuya snapped, struggling against the restraints as Orochi laid down on top of him and glared meaningfully into his eyes.

"Get off of me!"

Orochi's fingers curled around the younger man's slender wrists, holding them tightly as he teased his cousin's blossoming arousal with his own. And while Tetsuya glared and opened his mouth to protest, Orochi's smirking mouth came down on his, devouring each foul, hateful word he managed to utter. He attacked Tetsuya's soft, angry lips with passion equal to his cousin's fury. And although, at first, he raged against the bonds that held him, Tetsuya's body slowly fell under his cousin's erotic spell, tingling with memory of those hard, voracious kisses...and such touches as always had left him breathless with something beyond fear.

_The truth is, there was pleasure. It was just that I expected him to hurt me. And sometimes the things he did caused a little bit of pain, but there was..._

He sucked in a surprised breath as he realized that he had been bared down the front, and Orochi's hard, seeking mouth was trailing scathing kisses down a slender collarbone, then slowly over a pale, heaving breast. He tormented the sensitive nipples shamelessly, teasing more softly hissed protests from the younger man as he worked his way slowly downward, then paused for a moment, allowing Tetsuya a few fast breaths of recuperation. His eyes locked on his cousin's, closing into glowing slits.

"Do you still want me to unbind you, Tetsuya?" Orochi breathed onto blushing flesh.

"Y-yes!" Tetsuya hissed, his heart pounding fitfully in his chest.

"And you swear, you will not abandon me? Swear it, Tetsuya! I want an honest oath."

"I told you before!" Tetsuya insisted, "I will not abandon you, Cousin. I will stay here until such time as we leave together to return to the clan."

"Very well," Orochi said, shattering the bonds and watching as Tetsuya slowly sat up and turned away from him.

They were quiet for a moment, and Orochi's predatory eyes traced the contours of one pale, naked shoulder.

"Will you tell me something?" the younger man asked, almost beneath hearing, "If I am beneath you, then why do you want to do such things with me? If you hated me for my corrupted blood, then why, Orochi? Why do you want to touch me the way you do?"

"You don't know, Tetsuya?" his black-eyed cousin asked, moving closer and sliding an arm around him, "You are still very naive."

Tetsuya shivered as Orochi's arm snaked around his waist from behind, slipping down beneath his parted thighs and stimulating his hardened erection, while his seething mouth assaulted the flushed skin along the side of Tetsuya's blushing neck.

"I don't understand," Tetsuya panted discomfitedly, "It was different from the way you were when you had sex with the others, even Naoki, you did not touch the same way that you touched me. You never ordered them to bathe, to dress in fine silk. You did not bind and tease them the way you did with me."

"No," Orochi moaned, capturing and tormenting a soft earlobe.

"But why?" Tetsuya pleaded, looking away.

"You bewitch me, Tetsuya," Orochi purred in his ear, increasing the pressure on Tetsuya's piqued member and stroking harder and faster until Tetsuya's body shivered with sexual hunger, "I only want to do those sinful, wicked things to your naked body...only yours!"

"B-but," Tetsuya managed, as Orochi's mouth attacked his pale throat again, "that is not love, Orochi!"

"No," his cousin agreed helplessly, "It is not love, but _obsession_! But I am not alone in desiring these things. Look at how your body leans towards mine, though you would have it lean away. See how you tremble under my hands and blush when I kiss you, Tetsuya! This obsession is not mine alone, but has you in its grip as well!"

Orochi's arms tightened around him and began to pull him down to the floor of the cave, but Tetsuya pulled away, panting soft, heated breaths and holding his clothing in place over his bared body.

"Orochi," he said, shaking his head and frowning, "This is not the time for such a thing. Our lands have been overrun, our homes destroyed and our people killed and driven into hiding! We cannot take pleasure when all around us, our world is falling apart!"

"Shh," Orochi breathed onto his neck, recapturing him and feeding him a nipping kiss, "This is when we should seek comfort in each other, Tetsuya. When the storm around us rages, when our lands are overrun, our homes destroyed and our people killed and driven into hiding. When everything begins to fall apart, we seek strength where we can find it. We make each other strong, Tetsuya. Come to me now and let me fill you with the strength you so badly need!"

He stopped his cousin's protests with wild, plundering kisses, dragging Tetsuya onto his lap and sliding possessive hands down the length of his naked back. Commanding fingers invaded the younger man's entrance and swiftly prepared him, then Orochi pulled him close again, looking deeply into his eyes as he positioned himself and very slowly entered his cousin's yielded body.

"I regret we don't have that lovely yukata you used to wear for me," he sighed, biting down on Tetsuya's soft lips and sucking the younger man's feisty tongue into his mouth.

His hands stroked Tetsuya's sweating torso as it writhed shamelessly against him, rising and falling on his length as his panting moans joined Orochi's and filled the small cave.

"But there is something that I can do to refresh your memories of us," he murmured, his black eyes glinting.

He breathed a command to his zanpakutou and a moment later, Tetsuya felt the sleek, satin bodies of his cousin's zanpakutou snakes, slithering over his damp flesh. Tetsuya's breath hitched almost painfully at the dangerous feel that it gave their coupling. And when the snakes teased sensitive places on his widespread thighs and flushed penis with their bared fangs, he cried out in mingled fear and intense arousal.

Orochi's strong hands held on tightly to his younger cousin's bare bottom, his powerful hips thrusting wildly as he brought them to the edges of bliss. Tetsuya gasped as the snakes' fangs broke the skin on one pale thigh, just barely, sending him tumbling wildly into a fit of heavy shudders as he loosed his release and collapsed prettily against his black-eyed cousin's sweat-slicked shoulder, reeling as Orochi's hot seed filled him inside.

Orochi laid him down on his back and sought his mouth again, kissing him into senselessness. Tetsuya drifted off into the first peaceful sleep he had obtained since the opening battles with the quincies. The hours went by mostly dreamlessly, but when he did dream, it was only of being held tightly, possessively and kissed with such passion as brought happy tears to his eyes. It was a lone island of comfort in the roiling sea that his life had become, and he decided that it didn't matter that the comfort came from a man who had once tormented him. Orochi's hands hadn't tormented him during their lovemaking. And his words, though sometimes painful, rang with a truth that Tetsuya badly needed. He clung tightly to Orochi, breathing in his darker, richer scent and feeling the man's seething heat inside him, strengthening him for what laid ahead. But as he began to drop off again, he caught Orochi gazing at him quietly in the darkness and loosed the one question that still haunted him.

"Orochi," he said softly, "Tell me this...when we leave here and return to our kin, what will you do?"

"What do you mean, 'what will I do'? What a foolish question, Cousin."

"I need to know," Tetsuya insisted, "because the way you are now confuses me. You have been so clear in your criticism of those who would mingle noble blood with common, who would cheapen the blood in our lines..."

"So, you want to know if I will leave you or..."

"I need to know."

"I am sorry. I cannot answer that question, Cousin."

"I see," Tetsuya whispered, turning his head away to hide his disappointment.

Orochi's hand captured his face, bringing his eyes back to meet his cousin's.

"I cannot answer you because we do not know the full portent of what has happened out there. We shall have to strengthen ourselves here as best we can, then we will leave and learn the state of things. It is likely that the clans will be in turmoil after the holocaust that has just taken place. And childbearers like yourself may become very sought after."

Tetsuya shivered at the thought, then caught his breath in surprise as Orochi's arm curled around him and pulled him close again.

"Not to worry," he assured the younger man, "I won't let anyone touch you but me."

"Who said that I wanted you to touch me?" Tetsuya said in an annoyed tone, "I don't recall Orochi ever asking permission to do so. He only ever tied me up and took what he wanted."

"Ah," sighed the black-eyed man, "but I also gave you what you didn't know you needed desperately."

"I needed to be tied up and used sexually?" Tetsuya asked, scowling.

"You...this sinfully beautiful body of yours needed to be pleasured in ways you would never have dreamed of asking for. You needed to be bound so that you couldn't resist and loved to the very ends of your sanity, Tetsuya!"

"Loved?" Tetsuya repeated, blinking at the odd feel of that word in his mouth, "What does Orochi know of love? Have you ever even been in love?"

"Don't ask me stupid, useless questions," Orochi chided him, snaking his body around Tetsuya's and nibbling at his lips, "Go to sleep. In the morning, we shall try to have a look outside."

"We need to find Arashi," Tetsuya said, feeling a hard knot of worry inside at the thought of the injured stallion, "He should have come to me here. But I have not been able to sense much of anything. Perhaps by morning, my powers will be stronger and I will be able to connect with him. I hope he is all right."

"I am sure that ridiculous beast will be all over us the moment we surface. Don't spend all night worrying. Go to sleep, Tetsuya."

He punctuated the words with a soft throb of kido that made Tetsuya's eyes close and his slender body go limp in his cousin's embrace. Orochi held Tetsuya against him and watched small drops of water form on the rocky ceiling of the cave, before dripping down onto the cave floor all around them. He caressed Tetsuya's soft, wavy raven hair and replayed their lovemaking in his mind.

_I wasn't lying when I called this an obsession. I have never forgotten what it feels like to make love to you, Tetsuya. Yes, even though making love to you is wrong and even though we risk breaking the strict rules of my subfamily by making a mixed blood child together, I cannot reisist you!_

_I burn inside for you..._

_...always..._


	9. Emerging into Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochi and Tetsuya escape the underwater cave to find the Seireitei replaced with a world of shadows.

Tetsuya came awake suddenly, shivering and still seeing the nightmare he had been having. His recovering body throbbed painfully and he bit back a sound of discomfort, so as not to wake his deeply sleeping cousin. Instead, he laid, still held possessively in Orochi's strong arms, remembering other times he had been forced to stay in his cousin's warm bed all night and had awakened while his cousin still slept.

_I was always bound when I slept beside him. He was careful never to allow me an advantage. But sometimes I would wake while he was sleeping and I would look at his face in the moonlight. It stunned me how vulnerable, even one such as he looks as he sleeps. I always wanted to touch that softer expression, but my hands were bound. I never had a choice about anything...never, until now._

_I want to touch him._

_Why?_

_After everything, why do I want this so badly?_

His hand trembled as he lifted it and slowly extended it in his sleeping cousin's direction. He paused breathlessly, just short of touching the other man, then swallowed hard and let his fingers tease his cousin's tumbled black hair.

_It's soft...so soft, unlike him._

_He smells good._

His heart flickered painfully in his chest as he reached out and let his fingers brush lightly against his cousin's surprisingly soft cheek. Tetsuya gasped and started to pull away as Orochi's eyes snapped open, first registering curiosity, then narrowing slightly. He caught Tetsuya's hand as it tried to withdraw and brought it back to his face again. Tetsuya froze, waiting for his cousin to speak, then made a sound of surprise as Orochi's lips smiled, as though daring him to proceed.

_He has never let me touch him this way before. It feels strange, but so arousing. It makes me feel like I am finally reaching him, instead of just being possessed by him._

_But...why do I want...?_

_Why does my body ache for him to...?_

_It's wrong, isn't it? To desire those bonds on my wrists...to just think of them and...!_

"Is touching my face so arousing, Tetsuya?" Orochi asked, startling him with hot breath on one blushing earlobe, "Or is it that you only thought of something you want more?"

Tetsuya shivered involuntarily as Orochi's fingers teased the tender skin of his wrists, then tightened very slightly.

"You remember when I told you that what is between us is a powerful obsession," Orochi reminded him, beginning to draw a line of kido around one slender wrist, "The truth is that in those days and nights within the prison, we weren't just having sex, Tetsuya, we were building an unholy bond. As much as you feel bound and endangered by it, so am I. Does that surprise you?"

"What do you mean, you are endangered? How?" Tetsuya asked, watching as his wrists were bound and blushing at the strong reaction it caused in his loins.

"You know that my subfamily would not accept this," Orochi explained, "My father would likely disown me and name my younger brother, Yuu, heir. Pure bloodlines are, as you know, fiercely protected in my subfamily."

Tetsuya felt another deep shiver pass through him as Orochi used a small measure of silken cloth to blindfold him.

"What are you doing?" Tetsuya whispered, his chest heaving softly as intense throbs of arousal made his body ache all over to be touched.

"Let me guess," Orochi hissed slyly, "Right now, you are very aroused, Tetsuya, are you not?"

"I...!"

"Shh," the black-eyed shinigami soothed him, touching his fingers to Tetsuya's lips, then teasing them inside his cousin's hot mouth, "Just listen for a moment. You are aroused in two ways. First, you saw me sleeping, and you remembered that it was forbidden for you to touch me when I was sleeping before. But...you are used to being bound and sometimes blindfolded when we are together, so when I did those things to you just now, your body remembered the pleasures of the past and wanted more, Tetsuya."

"I...I don't..."

"But you do, don't you?" Orochi whispered, kissing his earlobe, then brushing their lips together and smiling at the tremor that went through Tetsuya's body, "So, the only way to encourage you now is to offer you both."

"B-both?"

"Your hands are bound," Orochi said, touching the bonds lightly, "but you can move them enough to explore me, and you are blindfolded, so your sense of touch is heightened, which will make everything feel more erotic for you. Go ahead if you don't believe me. Touch me, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya's heart fluttered dizzyingly as he extended his bound hands, finding Orochi's arm and sliding his fingers upward until they found his soft cheek again. He caressed the warm skin, blushing as he touched his cousin's lips and traced them to discover he was smiling.

"You see?" Orochi said, capturing Tetsuya's bound wrists and guiding Tetsuya's hands to his own nether region and guiding his fingers along the shaft of his hot, aroused member, pausing and lingering over the damp, blushing head, "you are reacting!"

He pulled Tetsuya's hands over to explore his equally reactive and leaking erection.

"And you see? I am not immune to you. Our bodies know each other very well. They desire each other. Don't resist, Tetsuya. Continue."

"No, I...I shouldn't."

"You're always so difficult," Orochi chided him, tightening his fingers around his cousin's wrist and keeping Tetsuya's fingers pressed to his flushed genitals, "You always expected me to hurt you, but we both know that even when our lovemaking was a little painful, you were, even then, in ecstasy!"

"No, I wasn't! I was scared to death of you back then! I only went along with you because you gave me no choice."

"You have a choice now," Orochi informed him, "If you wish, I can take the bindings off and free you. But your body betrays that such a thing is not what you desire right now."

"Damn you, let me go!" Tetsuya cried, "Take them off, Orochi!"

"Why?" his cousin whispered, licking his ear and chuckling softly at the powerful tremor it caused in Tetsuya's body, "You don't really want them off, although you are making quite a fuss. But that's part of the intrigue too, isn't it? As much as I love dominating you, you love being overcome by someone dark and powerful, ne?"

"No!" Tetsuya gasped, reeling as Orochi's possessive hands caressed his alert privates, then he dampened his fingers in the leaking fluid at the tip of Tetsuya's hungry penis and began a purposeful invasion, "No, stop!"

He made a sound of surprise as Orochi went still, then pulled free of him.

"Very well," he said, shattering the bindings and watching closely as Tetsuya tore away the blindfold and dragged his aching body into the darker part of the cave, where the hot spring bubbled.

Orochi's predatory eyes followed as Tetsuya threw himself into the hot water and sank down beneath the surface, surrounding himself in the heat and sound to drown out what he was feeling. But no matter how the hot water burned him, inside and out...no matter how he hated himself for it, he couldn't escape the feeling of arousal he experienced, just remembering the way Orochi had touched him.

 _We really are trapped, aren't we?_ he realized, tears coming into his eyes and floating out to mix with the roiling water of the hot spring he floated in, _What is between us is unholy...a pureblood from an intolerant family loving a half-blood...a freed prisoner who values his freedom, but only wants to be bound and loved forcibly by this man! What have we done to ourselves? What darkness have we laid ourselves in? And what can we do?_

_How am I to resist him?_

_I love him._

_I love Orochi._

_Why?_

_After everything...why?_

_He is right, isn't he? He did tease me in cruel ways, but he never really hurt me when we were together. He did save my life when he brought the medicine I needed when I was so ill in the prison. He did place me with Naoki, who could show me kindness that he could not. When I was going to be executed, he did save me. And he killed the man who ordered the death of our child._

Tetsuya felt the sensation of another body dropping into the hot spring, then he felt Orochi's strong arms wrap around him. Instinctively, he extended his water breathing ability to his cousin, allowing Orochi to remain submerged with him. His cousin's arms held him tightly as he surrendered one last time to frustrated tears.

_I always thought that he didn't love me, that I was just his possession! He was happy enough to let me believe it was just an obsession...and it is, in part. But Orochi really does love me! I feel it now._

He felt it even more strongly as his cousin's mouth found his and engaged it in an unusually gentle kiss. His hands, too, were gentler than they had ever dared to be as they explored his body slowly, teasing his erect nipples playfully, then still with that unexpected gentleness, they slipped inside him, probing and stretching him carefully as he prepared Tetsuya for their joining. Basking in the heat of the hot spring's water and the warmth of his cousin's kisses, Tetsuya yielded readily, turning himself over willingly to Orochi's ministrations, laying back as every inch of his white flesh was sweetly tormented and his cousin's fingers probed more deeply inside him, then wrapping himself tightly around Orochi's powerful body as his cousin shifted and touched his hardness to Tetsuya's prepared entrance. He pushed just inside, lingering, then moving his hips in slow, measured thrusts and working his way in ever deeper, until he was fully entrenched in his cousin's body.

Tetsuya expected an abandonment of the kindness he had been showing, but was surprised all over again as Orochi's hands continued their softer touches and his thrusts remained deep and slow, bringing Tetsuya swiftly to breathlessness. And offered that gentleness just once, Tetsuya felt a beautiful rush of emotion, then a flicker of returning power.

_My powers are returning...and that means..._

Tetsuya carefully shifted into shikai, calling to him several watery copies of himself that surrounded the two of them and converged on Orochi, making his eyes widen in surprise, then narrow as each of the waterforms latched onto him. He made an exclamation of surprise, then of intensified arousal as the eyes of the lovely waterforms entranced him and their feisty mouths and playful hands joined their master's in pleasuring him from head to toe. One moved the long hair aside and attacked his throat with sharp nips and hard kisses. Others slid down his back and sides, their fingers teasing him all over, then making him quiver in surprise, dismay and even more arousal as they slipped inside his virgin entrance and found that place no one had ever dared to touch, sending chills up and down his spine and making him groan and writhe rapturously.

 _Tetsuya..._ , Orochi mused wonderingly, _why did I never dream of experiencing you this way? Was it because of this? Was it because of what I feel inside when your power touches me? Do I fear loving you so much that I had to make you weak to even be with you? Have I been fooling myself all along?_

_Do I really...?_

_Can I...?_

A soft glow of white reiatsu rose around the two and Tetsuya's eyes opened to take in the wickedly beautiful sight of Orochi's darkly handsome face, surrounded in flurries of black hair, and his obsidian eyes glinting dangerously as they looked deeply into his.

 _I see it now so clearly_ , Tetsuya thought, _but I know better than to expect he'll ever say the words. Orochi's love is not gentle. Even when he touches me like this, I feel the aggressiveness, just beneath the surface. He is showing me this side of himself for a reason._

_Why?_

The question haunted him as the two moved together, floating in the scathing depths of the hot spring and tickled by the rising bubbles. Orochi's head bowed and his expression became even darker and more wanton. His body twitched warningly as he approached orgasm, and he started to look away.

 _I have never seen his face while he was in orgasm_ , Tetsuya realized suddenly, _He never lets me see his face at that moment, but always looks away._

He loosed his arms from around his cousin, his slender hands capturing Orochi's face and holding it gently as their movements carried both over and into release.

_Don't close your eyes, please!_

_Let me see you._

_I want to see you like this...in surrender to something more powerful. And I want that powerful thing that overwhelms you to be our love. Orochi, when I see you like this, I want for us to have everything. I want to be with you always...to surrender to you every night and to, at long last, let go of that horrid sadness in our past and give you a child._

_Still, I understand why that is not to be._

_You come from a pureblood family, and you should have been able to brush me off like the others in that prison. But you looked into my eyes, and it was like this. Something in me grabbed you by the heart and dragged you into this. Like you said, it was a horrible obsession. But now, with everything falling apart around us, we can see the love beneath everything._

_Orochi, just say the words. Whisper them here, where no one can hear. Tell me that you love me and I will give you everything!_

But even though his cousin's eyes remained barely opened and fixed on him, Orochi's parted lips yielded nothing of what he was thinking as his body shuddered against Tetsuya's in release, and the younger Kuchiki felt something hotter than the spring they were in, fill him inside and bring him into the heavy, mind-numbing throes of completion.

There was a moment of complete silence, then Tetsuya saw Orochi's eyes widen, and his fingertips reach in the direction of the seal he had placed on Tetsuya's chest. Tetsuya's eyes followed and came to rest on the spot, then rounded as he realized.

_It's gone!_

His heart in his throat, he tore away from Orochi, heedlessly abandoning his cousin and bursting from the hot spring. He flash stepped across the dark cave, not hearing at all as Orochi dragged himself out of the hot spring, coughed the water out of his lungs, then called out to his panicked cousin.

"Tetsuya, wait!"

Tetsuya dove into the icy water, his reiatsu blazing around him to light the way out of the protected area and into the open portion of the water. He didn't notice at all that his cousin followed, nor had he any concern about what waited for them at the surface.

It was when his head broke the surface of the water that he realized.

_What is this? Where are we? This place is not the Seireitei! The enemy has done something..._

He dragged himself onto the shore, then closed his eyes and focused deeply. Behind him, Orochi emerged from the water. He coughed out the water in his lungs, then approached Tetsuya cautiously, looking around as he made the same discovery that his cousin had made upon exiting the water. Tetsuya forgot his anxiety over the pregnancy seal and looked up at Orochi worriedly.

"What is it?" the darker eyed cousin asked, "Are they...?"

"They are still alive," Tetsuya reported, "They are still protected within the barrier, but..."

"Can you use your shikai to take us to them?"

Tetsuya touched Orochi's arm lightly and focused on the waterform within the protected zone.

"No. I don't understand..."

He conjured a waterform on the shore of the lake, then shifted from his body to the waterform and back.

"It isn't that my ability isn't working," he mused, "Something is keeping me from passing through...a darker barrier. It is not a shinigami power. The quincies have done something. They have somehow switched the Seireitei with this other, shadowed place.

"How?" Orochi whispered, staring.

"I don't know. But we are now in enemy territory...and alone."

Orochi heard a soft tapping behind him and turned away.

"Oh, we're not so alone, Tetsuya," he said, making Tetsuya turn as well.

The younger man's blue eyes widened.

"Arashi!" he gasped, noting the battered state of the tall black stallion.

Arashi nickered weakly in response and limped to Tetsuya's side. Tetsuya placed his arms around the injured horse's neck, embracing him and beginning a healing infusion.

"Arashi, you are alive," Tetsuya sighed, holding on to the huge beast and breathing in his warm, horsey scent, "Thank kami."

"But, what are we going to do?" Orochi asked, "Everything is gone."

"We should get closer to where the protected area was," Tetsuya suggested, "Maybe if we are closer, I can get my ability to work. In any case, when the fighting is over, Byakuya-sama will go there. We should go there too and wait for him."

Orochi nodded.

"Very well. Let's go."

Tetsuya mounted the stallion, then extended a hand and pulled Orochi up behind him. The elder Kuchiki slipped his arms around Tetsuya's slim waist, his mind going back to their discovery in the cave beneath the water.

_I didn't remove the seal, but it disappeared. I don't have to think too hard to figure out why. You wanted this, Tetsuya. We both did, and that caused the seal to fail. But there were reasons why that seal existed. Those things have not changed. There will be much to deal with when we return home...if..._

"Why did you break the seal?" Tetsuya asked suddenly, derailing Orochi's thoughts, "You did break it when we made love, didn't you?"

"No," Orochi answered, drawing a look of surprise from his cousin, "I didn't break the seal, Tetsuya...we did."


	10. Rapture

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochi and Tetsuya consider their future as they discover that the quincies have surrounded the Kuchiki hideout.

_He's quiet_ , Tetsuya mused, relaxing with his back pressed into Orochi's muscular chest, surrounded by his darker cousin's attractive scent, _He's been this way ever since we emerged from that cave under the water. I wonder what he's thinking. He must know that this is impossible. Even if we accept our fate and we want to be married, his father will disown him. I can't let that happen. But I know it even without confirmation. I feel our child growing inside me. What can we do? If we return and Orochi claims his child, he will be dishonored and if we return and say nothing, I will marry Yukihana Hiro under false pretenses. Once the pregnancy is discovered, they will know it is not his and that I lied. I will be imprisoned and Orochi will be found out and dishonored anyway._

_I should just disappear._

_But..._ he thought, studying the dark grey sky and frozen surroundings, _with the clan in hiding and our world in chaos, we should focus on that, for now and leave the rest for later._

"You look unwell, Tetsuya," Orochi commented, scattering his cousin's brooding thoughts, "Are you all right?"

"I don't think so," the younger noble admitted, bringing Arashi to a halt and sliding wearily down off the stallion's back.

He scanned the area around them, peering closely at the few faded plants dying under the heavy frost that seemed to cover everything.

"What are you looking for?" Orochi asked.

"Wild mint leaves," Tetsuya answered, "to soothe the discomfort."

His black-eyed cousin smiled.

"You are nauseous again?" he asked knowingly.

Tetsuya turned and shot him a furious look.

"I don't know how you can make light of this!" he snapped angrily, "You know what this means!"

"Of course I know," Orochi replied, smiling slyly, "You are with child, Tetsuya. You are having our child."

Tetsuya paled at the words and let out an unsteady breath, leaning against a dark, leafless tree and closing his eyes against the reality. Reading his level of distress, Orochi dismounted and moved closer, slipping an arm around his waist and brushing a warm cheek against his.

"Is it really such a horrible thing?" he asked quietly, his breath misting, "You said that you loved our first child, Tetsuya..."

"I did!" Tetsuya insisted, turning his head and finding their lips suddenly close together, "You were a cruel person, but our child was innocent. I never believed that you were born with that cruelty in you. You learned that, Orochi. Our child was a chance to know what you could have been if you hadn't been tainted with hatred and bigotry!"

"Does this feel like hatred to you, Tetsuya?" Orochi whispered, bringing his lips to warm his cousin's chilled ones, "I was cruel to you before, yes, but we found our own balance, even in those dark times."

"Please stop."

"Why?" Orochi inquired, his black-centered eyes burning down into Tetsuya's, leaving him with weakened knees and a feeling of growing arousal, "Because you can't help reacting to me?"

"I could if you would just let me go!" Tetsuya pleaded, "You know we can't be together! Why are you not taking all of this more seriously? We are going to have to face the elders, unless you plan for me to disappear and never marry Hiro."

"Well, you can hardly marry that man while carrying my child," Orochi said, smirking, "As kind and generous a man as he is, I don't think he would go that far as to claim the child as his own."

"So, what can I do?" Tetsuya asked breathlessly, the feeling of sickness increasing until his head swam, "Do you want me to leave? To hide? What about Byakuya-sama? What of my duty to him?"

"You don't even know he survived," Orochi reminded him, "If he did, then I suppose you have a difficult choice to make, but if he did not, it may not matter what my father thinks. After all, if Byakuya dies without an heir, then I am next in line for leadership, and knowing that you are having my child, the elders would demand we wed to legitimize my heir. My father might be able to still disown me, but as leader, he would not be able to take everything from me. It would change things very much in our favor."

"Don't speak of such things!" Tetsuya half-sobbed, "Byakuya-sama is alive! He must be. He will come back, Orochi. And when he does, you and I will both face the consequences of our actions!"

He sucked in an unsteady breath and dropped to his knees, retching, as the nausea overwhelmed him. Orochi watched silently, kneeling beside him and gently infusing his belly with calming reiatsu. Gradually, the sickness passed and Tetsuya leaned sleepily against his cousin, his eyes tearing again as Orochi's words returned to him.

"You don't even know he survived,"

A shiver went through his slender body and he felt Orochi's arms tighten around him, then warm breath on his cheek and throat.

"Orochi, please..."

"You need a cure for your melancholy," his cousin purred in his ear.

Tetsuya blushed.

"Stop it! We need to keep moving, Orochi!"

"Nonsense," Orochi chided him, shaking his head, "As much as we need to find the evacuation site, you also need rest. We will just rest for a little while."

"As long as it is just rest," Tetsuya replied hotly, his blush deepening.

Orochi chuckled and raised a reiatsu chamber to hide them, then the two rested their backs against a large, gnarled oak and he offered his younger cousin another infusion. By the time he was finished, Tetsuya was sleeping deeply, leaned against his shoulder, his expression troubled, even as he rested. Orochi nuzzled into the wavy lengths of his hair, breathing in his sweet scent and nipping gently at his throat. And it wasn't long before his nether region began to tease him and Tetsuya's beauty only seemed to cause more painful flares of arousal. He sucked indulgently on a patch of soft, blushing flesh, his loins throbbing at the things he wanted to do to his lovely cousin's body.

Before he quite realized what he was doing, he had carefully maneuvered Tetsuya down onto his belly. He slid his hand gently along each slender arm, securing his wrists to an exposed tree root, then pulling the tie from his waist and fashioning a soft blindfold. He loosened his cousin's clothing, then employed glowing kido ropes to spread his thighs wide. Tetsuya sighed in his sleep and breathed Orochi's name with mingled fear and longing, making his elder cousin's nether region heat in response.

He laid along Tetsuya's back, rubbing his thickened member against his cousin's soft bottom and licking the satin flesh of his throat as Tetsuya gave a fluttering moan and mindlessly moved with him. He tried to turn, but found himself frustrated as his sluggish mind began to wake and realize his situation.

Tetsuya's eyes opened, but only registered darkness under the blindfold. He started to object, but was met with a fury of hard, penetrating kisses that left him too breathless for words. Orochi's hand slid underneath his loosened clothing, seeking his reactive nether region and teased his awakening arousal shamelessly, until Tetsuya thought his mind might disappear into the powerful, erotic sensations. Hard, insistent fingers invaded his entrance, thrusting in deeply and sliding out slowly, thrusting in and stimulating that most sensitive place inside, while Orochi nipped and sucked playfully at the back of his neck. Tetsuya writhed within his bonds, at first, fighting them, then using them to brace himself as Orochi began to unleash his dangerous affections.

_What has he done to me?_

_What has he done that I can't resist him, even if I try? We shouldn't be doing this. None of this should be happening! But my body won't obey me. Even without the bonds, I would he helpless in his arms. I love feeling his strength, surrendering to him, letting him have his way with me completely. It feels like force, but in reality, I want this as much as he does. I ache all over to be joined with him._

_Why?_

_We began in such a dark place...and still, darkness surrounds us. But somehow, in his arms, I feel safe. Even as our world falls apart around us, I feel his strength and I know we will survive._

_I love him._

_Kami save me, I love Orochi..._

He gasped as Orochi's fingers found his most sensitive place again and stroked insistently. Fireworks seemed to flash blindingly before his covered eyes and he blushed at the loud, wanton sounds he was making. Orochi growled and pressed hard against his bottom, rubbing and thrusting as his fingers continued to prepare Tetsuya. He slid down to position himself and bit hard at his cousin's pale shoulder as pushed the flushed head of his cock into the wetted entrance, slowly worked his way inside, then fell still for a moment, panting softly and clenching Tetsuya tightly.

"You belong only to me," he hissed into Tetsuya's flushed ear, "You have since that first time. You understand now, don't you?"

A tear leaked onto Tetsuya's pale face.

"Don't despair," Orochi whispered, licking his earlobe and making his blush deepen sweetly, "I may be a wicked man, but I won't let harm come to you, Tetsuya. I'm at home in the shadows and I will destroy anything that comes near you. My lips will devour you but you will know only the blinding pleasure of our love!"

Tetsuya reeled in shock at the words.

_He said...!_

Orochi moved suddenly, dragging an aroused groan from deep within Tetsuya's heaving chest. He pressed against Tetsuya's strong back, thrusting hard and fast, biting at his cousin's earlobe, throat and shoulder and adding his own erotic utterings to the sounds Tetsuya was making. Heat flashed all over the younger Kuchiki's yielded body and he shuddered warningly as Orochi's thrusting erection slid in and out of him, and he neared climax. Orochi coiled fiercely around Tetsuya's writhing form, his black eyes hazed with lust and his own body shivering as they surrendered together to climax with a ringing mutual cry.

The bonds on Tetsuya shattered suddenly and he turned and met his elder cousin for a rage of finishing kisses, before collapsing in his arms, panting harshly and too exhausted to even regret his own impulsive actions.

"You said, our love."

"Why are you surprised?" Orochi asked, running his fingers through Tetsuya's wavy hair and nibbling sleepily on his lips, "It would be hard to deny, now that our love grows inside you. I suppose that I should prepare to lose everything."

"Orochi!"

"But then, I won't really be losing everything if I still have you and our child, ne?"

A helpless smile crawled slowly across Tetsuya's face, prompting another bout of penetrating kisses that left both men flushed all over and beginning to harden again.

"Rest now," Orochi chided him, coaxing Tetsuya's head onto his shoulder.

Tetsuya finally found himself able to relax completely. He fell into a deep, restorative sleep that lasted for hours, before he came awake again suddenly and shattered the reiatsu cage to gain distance before surrendering to a powerful bout of returning nausea. He sighed in relief as Orochi's arm wrapped around him, supporting him gently as his cousin infused his body with calming reiatsu. They returned to the tree and slept for several more hours before waking and climbing onto Arashi to continue their search for the Kuchiki compound.

"It feels closer," Tetsuya commented, looking between Arashi's perked ears and off into the distance, but I still cannot pass through to the waterform I placed there. I don't understand this, Orochi. What did the quincies do? How did they make this happen?"

"I don't know," his cousin confessed, resting his chin on Tetsuya's shoulder, "but we should expect that, at some point, there will be enemies to deal with. Tell this beast of yours to mind where he's going."

_Tell that lecherous beast to mind his own step, Arashi whispered dryly into Tetsuya's mind._

_Behave yourself, Arashi_ , Tetsuya thought back, _Orochi is the father of my child. You'd do best to get along with him._

_I don't trust him._

_Neither do I...but I do love him._

_Master..._

_Don't worry, Arashi. I know who that man is...and what he is. I understand exactly the decision I have made._

_I hope so._

Tetsuya's mind quieted and he focused on the dark land around them, the unfamiliar clusters of trees that vaguely mirrored the land that had been stolen away.

"If I couldn't feel that the family was still alive, I would be terrified," he mused aloud, "I've never seen anything that could devastate the Seireitei and the Gotei 13 to such an extreme."

"Neither have I," Orochi agreed, "I imagine that, about now, our kin are wondering if they will ever emerge again from wherever they have been sent. We may be in darkness, but we are at least able to address an enemy if we find one."

"I am sensing life signs in the area ahead of us," Tetsuya warned him, "We may be forced into a fight very soon."

"Then, if a fight is unavoidable, let us do what we can to mitigate the danger," Orochi suggested.

"What?"

Orochi breathed a command to his sword and his body flickered darkly, then slowly resolved into the black body of a large snake. He slid down off of Arashi's back, prompting a sound of dismay from the spooked stallion.

"Easy, Arashi," Tetsuya soothed him, "He is right. We need to think ahead."

He nudged Arashi off of the trail and brought him to a stop, dismounting and watching as the black snake slid noiselessly into the brush and disappeared. A shiver went through him as he found himself alone in the grey forest, comforted only by Arashi's warm presence.

"I don't like this," he said softly, "I don't like separating."

_It was necessary so that we could learn our enemy's position._

"Yes, of course. But that doesn't change the way I feel."

_You really are in love with him, aren't you?_

"Yes, Arashi. I know it doesn't make so much sense, but we are very deeply connected. And with the coming of this child, we will be even more so. I was dreading that because of what Orochi's father will likely do, but I can't be regretful. We are drawn to each other in a way that can't be undone."

Arashi emitted a soft, huffing sound that brought an instant smile to his master's lips.

_You are very foolish._

"I suppose I am."

Tetsuya kept careful watch, making his breaths silent and listening closely for any sound of an enemy or the returning snake. But only soft breezes caused a rushing in the branches above him and dark mist crept in around the two where they waited in growing anxiety. Finally, a little sound in the brush brought Tetsuya to alert and he gave a sigh of relief as Orochi reappeared and shifted from snake form back to his shinigami form.

"I found the place where the compound would be if we were in the Seireitei," his cousin reported, "but it is surrounded, Tetsuya. I think they know it's there. I don't think they can attack it while we are on this side. They seem to be waiting for something."

"Probably for their leader to claim victory," Tetsuya breathed anxiously.

"I believe so."

"We can't leave them in that position," Tetsuya concluded, "We have to draw them off somehow or..."

"There are a large number of soldats that we should be able to handle," Orochi explained, "but there is also a powerful presence, likely a sternritter officer."

Tetsuya shuddered inwardly, remembering the terrible power of the one they had encountered at Kuchiki Manor.

"I suppose we have no choice," Tetsuya concluded.

"I want you and Arashi to draw off the soldats," Orochi said, "I will take care of the officer."

"What do you mean?" Tetsuya objected, "The two of us could not handle that officer back at the manor! You can't possibly..."

"The soldats could be a deadly distraction if we do not draw them off first," Orochi reminded him.

"Then, we'll send Arashi to draw them off," Tetsuya insisted, "I am not leaving you!"

"Tetsuya, you are with child!"

"I know that!" the younger Kuchiki snapped, "And I am not losing the father of my child the way I...!"

He paled and a look of illness overtook his features. He collapsed onto his knees, retching as Orochi watched with oddly sympathetic eyes. When the illness eased, he remained on his knees looking up into his cousin's black eyes.

"I can't go through that again," he managed softly, "I'll die this time, Orochi."

Orochi sighed and helped him back to his feet.

"Then, I suppose we'll have to make sure we survive this."


	11. Uncoiled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orochi and Tetsuya attack the quincies surrounding the Kuchiki hideout.

"I still don't think that we should take the risk of separating," Tetsuya hissed softly, following the path of Orochi's black eyes to where rows upon rows of heavily armed soldats waited in the shadows of the dying trees, "Arashi can handle the soldats. You should engage the leader and I will position myself to attack when he attacks you. You know that was when the quincy we fought was most vulnerable to damage! Orochi, let me help you!"

"You are protecting our child, Tetsuya," Orochi reminded him, curling an arm around him and bringing their lips together, "You know you are not up to the rigors of that level of battle."

"And you know that sometimes even those not up to the rigors of battle are forced to fight anyway! The lives of our kin are on the line and we are the only ones who can protect them! If all of us do not give everything, we could lose more than each other, Orochi. You, Arashi and I are all that stands between that army of quincies and the heart of the Kuchiki family! And our child, just like us, must be ready to lay down his or her life to defend that."

Orochi's hand curved gently around Tetsuya's pale face and his hardened eyes glared down into the blue depths of his lover's infuriated ones.

"And what if I agree to this and our child is lost? Will I watch you break apart all over again, Tetsuya? Watch you drown in the rain that would fall endlessly until you disappear into it? I don't want that," Orochi insisted, kissing Tetsuya again and lacing their fingers together, "You must let me brace the leader of the group while you and Arashi destroy the soldats. You must kill all of them, Tetsuya. Otherwise, even when the leader falls, our kin will be overrun."

"Orochi!"

"Please," Orochi said in an unusually quiet tone, unlike any Tetsuya had ever heard his dark cousin use before, "do as I ask. Protect our kin. Protect our child. I give you my word, Tetsuya. I will come back to you."

Tetsuya stood frozen, stunned to speechlessness as Orochi's lips sought his desperately.

_He has never done this...asked me to do as he willed. From the beginning, Orochi was one who demanded and simply claimed what he wanted. He never asked for anything from me, but overwhelmed me and stole it...even to my own heart. Yes, that he stole too. And now he stands in front of me and asks...he asks for the impossible._

A jolt went through him as Orochi's hands touched his face and the dark eyes met his again, sending chills down his spine.

"I wish that I could be with you right now," he breathed into Tetsuya's ear, making it blush fiercely, "Just one more time before this all plays out. But the time for that has come and gone, and there is nothing left but to face our enemy and earn the happiness you and I will know after this all ends."

Tetsuya let out a soft, resigned breath.

"And what happiness is that?" he asked, shaking his head, "Are you in such a hurry to have to choose between your good name and the half-blood trash you brought home?"

"Tetsuya..."

"I once cried because I had no idea that you loved the first child we made together. It was unbearable to think that you could look down on something so beautiful as our child would have been. But to think of you losing everything, having your father turn his back on you and disown you over me...Orochi, I can't..."

"Shh, you let me worry about my father. And leave that for now anyway. We need to focus on getting rid of these enemies. Take Arashi and go up on that ridge, into the trees. I will circle around and attack the leader from behind as you draw the soldats to you."

"Orochi..." Tetsuya objected.

"Go. Give me an opening, Tetsuya. Make it a good one," Orochi said, turning and flash stepping away.

"Orochi!"

Tetsuya let out a frustrated breath.

_Master, if I may? Arashi's wispy voice whispered into Tetsuya's mind._

"What is it?" Tetsuya asked absently, his eyes still looking in the direction Orochi had gone.

_I think I have a strategy we can use that will eliminate the soldats and place you in a position to surprise the leader._

"Go on."

_Orochi has circled around to the right. If you move around the left flank and we make a triangle formation, I can draw their attack, then after Orochi attacks the leader, you can first attack the rear guard of the enemy, then when they are down, assist Orochi in his battle._

"Are you sure that you can handle taking all of the soldats head on, Arashi? There are hundreds!"

_Didn't you just express confidence in me doing just that?_

"Yes," Tetsuya answered, coloring slightly, "although I have to admit, I was being a little impulsive. We have to be careful. We have no one to help us if we are overrun."

_We won't be. Go, Master. I promise you, I will defeat the soldats on this end. Just make your attack on the rear guard a good one._

"I will," Tetsuya promised.

He watched as Arashi slipped into a waterform, then he used one himself to cover his passage into the forest. He moved slowly, minding carefully the position of the enemy that had spread out across the area, waiting to engage the hidden shinigamis they could sense, but could not yet see. He could see that the men looked bored and impatient, proud and self-assured.

_But judging by what happened...the thousands of lives they took in the first battle...they have reason to be confident. The Gotei appears to have been unable to stop them. Orochi and I could not stop the officer who came to the manor, but could only delay him long enough for the family to flee. We barely escaped with our lives...which tells me it's foolishness for him to attack that officer on his own._

_But he won't exactly be on his own._

_Not that Orochi knows that._

He moved cautiously to the back of the gathered group, then began a mental countdown that Arashi could hear in his mind as well.

_Commence your attack in 5, 4, 3..._

He felt Arashi's power begin to build and began to raise his own. Somewhere nearby, Orochi's reiatsu began to rise along with theirs. The gathered soldats exchanged glances and looked at their leader.

"They're attacking! Stand your ground, and when you see them, KILL THEM!" the officer shouted as Tetsuya's countdown went on.

_2, 1, NOW!_

A fury of concentrated ice blades exploded in front of the soldats, while another surprised the less expectant rear guard. Screams erupted from the dying soldats as the leader roared furiously, directing those not hit to attack the now visible attackers. The officer turned on Tetsuya, firing a volley of quincy arrows that the nimble shinigami escaped using his blistering flash step. As the quincy officer closed in, Orochi attacked suddenly from behind, slashing the officer and drawing a wounded howl of mingled pain and determination.

Tetsuya blanched as a second quincy officer appeared suddenly behind Orochi and moved to attack.

"NO!" the blue-eyed shinigami cried, flash stepping furiously and plunging his weapon into the officer, then breathing a scathing command, "Touketsu Shima!"

"KILL THE HORSE!" the officer bracing Orochi ordered the swell of soldats.

_Arashi, I can't get to you! Tetsuya cried out in his mind._

_I will be fine_ , the stallion promised, _Let's finish them!_

Tetsuya sensed the release of another huge volley of ice blades and turned his attention back to the officer he had impaled.

"Kudakero!" he said, willing the ice that had surrounded the officer to break.

To his surprise, even though the ice shattered, the officer's body remained whole.

"Fool," the officer growled, surging forward and firing more arrows, "I had time between your first attack and your second to use my blut to keep your second spell from breaking my body. Now, you are going to pay for your foolishness with your life!"

He fired an arrow at point blank range, watching as it tore through Tetsuya's body. A moment later, he gave a shocked gasp as the shinigami's slender body broke apart and fell to the ground as a puddle of water.

"What the...?"

He blocked a heavy slash from Tetsuya's sword with his blut and grabbed the offending blade.

"You are stubborn," he observed, "but you must know you are fighting a losing battle. Our forces decimated the Gotei 13. What chance do you think you have?"

He lowered his eyes and gathered reiatsu into his body, making it glow bright white. Tetsuya tore his weapon free and flash stepped away as the quincy loosed what looked like a huge blaze of light, and before the stunned shinigami's eyes, the trees stricken by the light were cleanly cut in half.

"My power is called 'Edged Light,'" the quincy officer explained, "It will cut through anything. If you are in its path, you will be sliced in two. And don't expect your power to protect you. I saw the form you used to escape, and I will send my edged light in all directions at once to destroy your path of escape!"

Tetsuya gasped and launched himself into the air as the light flared out in all directions around the quincy.

_Arashi, don't let the light touch you!_

"Orochi, the light will cut you!" he screamed.

Relief flooded his body as Orochi's body shimmered and shifted to snake form, dropping him below the attack zone and giving him a clear opening to strike the second officer. Tetsuya aimed a fury of ice blades down at his enemy as Orochi aimed his strike at the lower leg of his opponent. The quincy facing Tetsuya's ice blades fended them off with an explosion of white reiatsu. The officer facing Orochi snarled and aimed his bow at the snake as it bit down on his calf.

"Die!" the quincy seethed, loosing his arrows.

To his surprise, the snake's body broke apart and splashed to the ground in a puddle of water.

"What?"

"They're working together!" his comrade shouted, "Use your vollstandig!"

Tetsuya and Orochi looked on in horror as bright white wings formed on the backs of the two officers and the reiatsu around them swelled dangerously.

"Get out of here, Tetsuya!" Orochi roared, "I bit one of them. I can handle the other!"

"We should fight together!" Tetsuya insisted, "Arashi just communicated that he has finished the soldats and is coming to us!"

"You have to leave!" Orochi insisted, "Go, Tetsuya. I will hold them back until Arashi gets here!"

 _You are not going to be able to win this battle as you are_ , a feminine voice whispered into Tetsuya's reeling mind, _Tetsuya, our shikai and even our bankai are not enough._

"They have to be enough!" Tetsuya panted, "Re-kuhime!"

 _You must trust me_ , the zanpakutou spirit warned him, _Withhold your attack until Arashi arrives and then do exactly as I say. The attack I have in mind is powerful enough to defeat them, but it will take a lot out of us. We will not be able to fight for very long. We must win quickly once we attack._

"I understand," Tetsuya said uneasily, watching from within a cluster of trees as Orochi split his body into a group of snakes that attacked from numerous directions at once, landing several bites. The quincy officers swore, but seemed unaffected by the venom.

"Orochi's poisons are usually swift in paralyzing or killing his enemies!" Tetsuya noted in dismay, "They aren't being affected at all!"

Noticing his attacks weren't working, Orochi left one group of snakes attacking one of the quincies, while he gathered some of the snakes and made a larger one that slid up a tree trunk and honed in on the other quincy. As the unsuspecting quincy tried to help his comrade with the attacking snakes, Orochi sent the larger snake dropping down and looping around the quincy's neck. He tightened the coil swiftly and sank his fangs into the quincy's neck.

"L-let go, damn you!" the quincy croaked, tearing at the snake's tightening body, "Y-you can't...augh...kill me this way! My blut will...!"

"Your blut will protect your blood supply from being cut off," Orochi's snake form hissed, "however, the compression will force your veins inward and will still eventually cause the bones in your neck to snap!"

The quincy staggered and stumbled about, ripping at the snake as the smaller snakes held his comrade at bay. He moved unseeingly closer and closer to the edge of a ravine that ran alongside the forest, until he teetered nearly at the cliff's ledge. Orochi tightened his hold until he heard the bones in the quincy's neck snap and the man stiffened and gave a strangled shriek. The snake uncoiled forcefully, spinning the helpless quincy off the edge, then watching it plunge downward. It slithered back to where the second quincy was escaping the smaller snakes and moved to curl around him.

"It's not happening!" the remaining quincy shouted, raising his bow and firing at the incoming snakes.

Orochi gathered in all of the snakes and formed into one great snake that slithered madly about, evading volleys of arrows and looking for an opening to attack. Nearby, Tetsuya heard hoofbeats and sighed in relief as Arashi finally reached him.

_Climb onto Arashi's back and sheathe your sword in his body, at the base of his neck. Give the command 'Shinigami Tenba,' and we will take a new form, Re-kuhime directed him, Your body will be sacrificed to give the two of you a divine form. This is the only chance we have to defeat the remaining quincy. Let Orochi make an opening, then Arashi will attack. We will have one chance. We must finish him quickly!_

"We will," Tetsuya said, launching himself onto the stallion's back and raising his sword.

He drove the weapon into the horse's back, at the base of his neck.

"Shinigami Tenba!" he cried, watching in wonder as the reiatsu exploded around them.

Tetsuya felt the strangest sense of first dissolving, then being wrapped around Arashi's equine body. Part of him sprouted as feathery wings on the stallion's shoulders. Another bit of him formed a sharp black horn that sprouted from Arashi's forehead. Blue armor wrapped around the horse's face and chest and sharp spikes formed on his hooves. Arashi reared and loosed a scathing battle cry, then aimed himself at the quincy, where he had begun to force Orochi towards the edge of the cliff.

 _Move out of the way, quickly_! Tetsuya's divine form whispered into Orochi's mind, sending him in snake form, slithering away as the winged unicorn attacked.

His hoofbeats shaking the ground and his war shriek shattering the air, the divine stallion employed a blazing flash step, striking the quincy before he could move out of the beast's path. The quincy screamed in terror as the unicorn's horn impaled him, tearing through even his blut and forcing both off the ledge. Reiatsu exploded out of the horn and tearing through the enemy's body, melting part so that it flew off the end of the divine stallion's horn and started to fall.

 _Tetsuya, the form is unstable! We can't hold it anymore_! Re-kuhime's voice howled in his mind.

Tetsuya aimed himself at the far edge of the ravine, sending the divine beast soaring towards it. Their reiatsu flashed fitfully, and Tetsuya felt them breaking apart from each other. As they crashed down, the blue-eyed noble's eyes captured a final glimpse of the enemy, plummeting into the ravine, but his mind registered something horribly gone wrong. The quincy's hand was wrapped tightly around the tail of Orochi's snake form, carrying it along as he fell.

"OROCHI!" Tetsuya screamed.

The winged unicorn crashed down onto the far side of the ravine and Tetsuya's body re-formed and rolled away. Arashi rolled over and came to his feet for a moment, took two staggering steps, then collapsed again. Tetsuya gained his feet and stumbled back to the edge of the ravine, still screaming his lover's name. He fell to his knees, peering into the blackness and unable to learn his cousin's fate. After a few moments, he collapsed entirely and went perfectly still.

The forested area went deathly quiet in the wake of the battle, and the light of the reiatsu gave way to the darkness of the shadows that had descended over them at the order of the quincy king.

For several hours, nothing in the area moved. Tetsuya and Arashi remained, unconscious and alone at the top of the ravine, while a heavy mist rolled in, obscuring the area even more. Night fell, and even then, nothing moved. It wasn't until some hours later that a point of light appeared in the blackness above them, then, like a curtain, the shadows were drawn back and morning came.

On the opposite side of the ravine from Tetsuya and Arashi, flash steps sounded and Byakuya, Rukia and Renji appeared. The looked around curiously, examining the melting ice and hundreds of dead soldats.

"This was Tetsuya and Arashi's power," Byakuya observed, "They kept the quincies from finding the evacuation site!"

"But where is he?" Rukia asked, looking around, "The seal on the hideout is still in place. Where is Tetsuya, if he is not inside?"

The three flash stepped through the forest, searching among the fallen bodies, but finding no sign of the missing shinigami or stallion. They burst out of the trees and onto the cliff top at the side of the ravine.

"Over there!" Renji exclaimed, pointing, "They're on the other side!"

The three used their reiatsu to create footholds as they passed over to the other side of the ravine and rushed to where Tetsuya and Arashi laid. Byakuya knelt at his cousin's side and examined him quickly.

"Is he all right?" Renji asked anxiously.

"He seems only mildly injured, but his body is depleted of reiatsu. His spirit centers are dangerously burned. He will need immediate healing."

"Arashi looks the same," Rukia reported breathlessly, "Nii-sama, what happened to them?"

"I am not sure," Byakuya answered, "We will figure it out later. Let's get them to the hideout for treatment, quickly!"

He lifted the unconscious shinigami and flash stepped away as Rukia and Renji regarded Arashi's collapsed body.

"You mean, we have to carry him back?" Renji complained.

"Shut up and get his back end!" Rukia snapped.

"Why do I get the horse's ass?" the redhead moaned.

"Let me think..." Rukia huffed, straining as she lifted the horse's upper body.

"Hey, that's not nice!"


	12. Venom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byakuya returns from the war and makes several shocking discoveries about Tetsuya and Orochi.

"Tetsuya..."

The calm, familiar male voice seeped into the haze that surrounded Tetsuya's mind, tugging at his heart as he remembered feeling sure he would never hear it again.

"B-byakuya?" he managed in a shaky whisper, "Are you r-really here?"

"I am here," Byakuya answered, his voice anchoring his unsteady cousin and bringing him back into wakefulness, "I have returned to you, Tetsuya."

Tetsuya's eyes flew open wide and, forgetting his weakness, he threw himself into his cousin's strong arms, crying silently.

"S-sorry," he apologized, "But I felt your reiatsu disappear! For so long, I could not feel it at all! I didn't want to believe you were gone. I am so glad you came back safely, watashi no itoko!"

"Nii-sama was badly injured in the first attack," Rukia reported from where she sat alongside Renji, on Tetsuya's other side, "We all were badly hurt and we were taken to the royal realm for healing, rest and training."

"They intervened," Tetsuya mused, "But then, I knew from the horrible power of the one who came to the manor, that the quincies were a formidable enemy."

"Ah, I had heard from the survivors that you had faced one of the officers to give the family time to escape," Byakuya said approvingly.

"Orochi and I fought the invader together," Tetsuya explained.

"Orochi..." Byakuya repeated, frowning.

"He was at the manor bringing a message for you from his father. The quincies attacked while he was there. We confronted one of their officers in the courtyard, but even the two of us could only fend him off until the family was safe. We could not defeat him, and were forced to flee. I was...rendered unconscious, but Arashi and Orochi rescued me. We were hit by an attack and crashed down into a lake, where I found an underwater cave. Orochi and I healed each other and eventually emerged to find that the landscape had changed."

"Yes," Byakuya acknowledged, "The quincy king sent the Seireitei into the shadows and called out the quincy empire from the shadows they lurked in."

"Our kin within the barrier were taken along with the Seireitei," Tetsuya concluded, "That must be why I could not use the waterform within to get inside, nor could I pass through the barrier."

"It was in a different dimension and therefore, not within your reach," Byakuya agreed.

"But we are within the barrier now, ne?" Tetsuya inquired, "How?"

Byakuya smiled.

"Kurosaki Ichigo has triumphed over Ywach, and as the quincy king died, the Seireitei was brought back into the light."

Tetsuya looked around the room questioningly, then back at his cousin.

"Byakuya, where is Orochi?" he asked, feeling a throb of concern at the blank look he received in response.

"Orochi?"

"That's right," Renji said, "You said Orochi was with you."

"What happened, Tetsuya?" Rukia asked, "When we found you, you were alone. And we didn't find Arashi."

"Arashi is all right," Tetsuya assured them, "He was just drawn into my inner world to strengthen me when I...was injured."

"We did find a bunch of dead soldats," Renji added.

"We sensed the more powerful quincy officers, but their reiatsu had diminished," Byakuya went on, "I did sense Orochi, but his reiatsu had diminished as well. We weren't sure if it was because he left the area, perhaps looking for you, or if he was killed in the fighting."

Tetsuya's breath caught painfully as he remembered watching the quincy officer drag his cousin over the edge of the cliff and down the long fall into the ravine.

"Did you send someone to search the ravine?" Tetsuya asked, his eyes tearing, "During the battle, I saw one of the quincies pull him over the edge. Th-they fell."

Byakuya nodded.

"We found signs that the two quincy officers had perished there, but we found no sign of anyone else."

He squeezed Tetsuya's hand gently.

"I am sure he will surface again when it is least convenient," he said in a way that was meant to sound reassuring, but only deepened the feeling of foreboding in Tetsuya's insides.

Noting his cousin's discomfort, Byakuya cleared his throat and glanced at Rukia and Renji.

"Will you please excuse us?"

Tetsuya paled as they left, and his eyes sought Byakuya's worriedly.

"Byakuya-sama, will you tell me how long I was asleep?" he asked carefully.

"You slept for ten days from the time we found you," Byakuya answered, "and now that we are alone, I will reveal that I also sensed you had used an ability that was well beyond any I knew you possessed. I am aware of your bankai, so this was...either a powerful variation or it was...something beyond even that."

Tetsuya swallowed hard and blinked several times to clear his eyes.

"The quincies were too powerful for Orochi and me to defeat," he said softly, "Orochi did manage to kill one, but the other was overwhelming him and Re-kuhime explained to me that while our shikai and bankai were not powerful enough to end the fight, she knew of another power we could use. She said that it would take a lot out of us."

"That is an understatement," Byakuya confided, "The healer who examined you informed me that in addition to needing to sleep for that ten days to restore your ability to contain reiatsu in your body, your spirit centers were badly burned, so you will be without your powers for some time. He estimates it could be more than a month before you can so much as flash step. I imagine this is the true reason that Arashi was drawn back into your body."

Tetsuya's head bowed slightly and Byakuya examined him more closely before continuing.

"Tetsuya, you and I discussed when you achieved bankai, both the dangers and the connotations of having and using powers beyond our bankai."

"Yes," Tetsuya acknowledged softly, "You told me that in rare cases when one develops a many variant and powerful bankai like yours, or is able to manifest a divine ability, one is usually destined to serve the king more directly."

"That is correct," Byakuya agreed, "Why don't you tell me about the power you called on to help you end your battle with the quincy?"

Tetsuya took a steadying breath and nodded.

"Re-kuhime directed me to sheathe my sword in Arashi's body, just at the base of his neck. When I did so, my body melted and formed more powerful wings than those he uses when he takes his normal Pegasus form. In addition, my reiatsu formed a horn on his forehead for fighting, spikes on his hooves, and body and face armor. The horn could be used for impaling, then divine reiatsu focused through it to destroy the enemy. He also had a more powerful variant of my bankai level ice blast."

He paused, noting with curiosity the look of deep pride that had overtaken Byakuya's face.

"Byakuya-sama?"

"I was just thinking about the boy I saved from Itamigiri all of those years ago, Tetsuya," Byakuya confessed, "You have come so far, watashi no itoko, and through so many trials."

He paused again, looking for the right words.

"You...wouldn't want to take a course of action now that would impact your ability to serve his majesty when the call for your promotion comes."

Tetsuya's lips tightened and his head bowed more deeply. He searched for something to say, but no words came to him.

"There is one more thing that the healer noticed when he examined you," Byakuya said calmly, "I think you know what I am referring to?"

"Yes," Tetsuya admitted, raising his eyes to meet his cousin's.

"You are with child."

"Yes."

Byakuya's lips curved downward.

"The child is...?"

"Orochi's."

Tetsuya registered keenly the sudden tension that came into Byakuya's otherwise poised body.

"Not that you owe me an explanation," Byakuya said bracingly, "but would you tell me how this happened? I assume it was while you and Orochi were concealing yourselves beneath the lake?"

"It was," Tetsuya confirmed, "While we were healing from our wounds, we...worked out our differences and...we realized that despite some atrocious behavior on his part, we have an undeniable connection."

"He did not force himself on you?" Byakuya asked sternly.

"No," Tetsuya sighed softly, "He only confronted me with truths about us that I have tried very hard not to see. But...given our circumstances and the benefit of hindsight, I did come to agree that there is something...profound between us."

"Tetsuya..."

"I know he was cruel sometimes," Tetsuya acknowledged, his face paling until it was almost snow white, "Kami knows, I tried to hold that between us. I resisted, but I did give in to him...and...I cannot be sorry for doing so. Not honestly, anyway."

"Then...you wish to have this child?"

Tetsuya felt a soft jolt inside and his eyes widened. He met Byakuya's eyes and something unspoken passed between them that left the younger man shaking softly.

_If Orochi is dead, then his father has some rights in deciding the fate of our mixed blood child!_

"Byakuya-sama," he managed unsteadily, "I cannot allow anyone to hurt our child. I will die before I let anyone hurt our baby."

Byakuya's dark grey eyes softened as they looked into his.

"You don't need to worry about being forced to abort your child," he said reassuringly, "but you should expect that Isas will not acknowledge the child as an heir."

"I don't care about that," Tetsuya insisted, "I only want to find Orochi and..."

He stopped at the look in his cousin's eyes.

"You don't think he survived, do you?" he asked more quietly.

"Do you?" Byakuya asked, not unkindly, "It has been ten days since you were found and brought to the compound. And our searches yielded nothing...no sign of him."

"I know that," Tetsuya said, shaking his head, "I am not denying that he may be dead, but I must go and..."

"You are not in any shape to go anywhere," Byakuya said firmly.

"Byakuya-sama, I...!"

"I will go," Byakuya said, freezing him in place with the words.

Tetsuya's sapphire eyes rounded.

"B-but you...?"

"You think I won't search as thoroughly as you?" Byakuya asked.

"No! I know that if you say you are going to search, you will. I was just...surprised that you would..."

Byakuya's head dipped slightly.

"There is a child to consider," he said simply, "I will go."

Tetsuya found himself momentarily speechless. Byakuya squeezed his hands gently.

"If he is there to be found, then I will find him and bring him back to you. I admit I have great reservations, both because of his cruelty to you when you were imprisoned, as well as his general disregard for proper etiquette when it comes to courting a member of a ranking family, such as Sadao's."

"Well," Tetsuya said, a small smile touching his lips, "we were in the middle of a war and cut off from the family, so it was impossible for him to ask for my father's blessing."

"You know Sadao would rather kill that man than hand you over to him," Byakuya mused, a faint smirk touching the corners of his mouth.

"I know," Tetsuya sighed ruefully, "I suppose I will have a lot of explaining to do."

"Well," Byakuya said, rising and looking down into Tetsuya's calmer gaze, "I will go and take Rukia and Renji with me to search the ravine. I promise you that I..."

"I trust you," Tetsuya said readily, "If he is there to be found, you will find him."

Neither voiced the obvious connotation.

_If Byakuya cannot find him, then he will be declared dead...lost in the war._

"Stay here and rest," Byakuya advised him, "You only just woke and Michio said that you would be weak and could have more profound nausea and dizziness because you are also carrying a child. You should feel better as your reiatsu restores itself and your powers slowly return, but if you do not rest properly, you will only delay your healing."

"I understand," Tetsuya assured him, "I will stay here and not get into any more trouble."

"That would be a surprising turn of events," Byakuya mused, "For one who understands well the importance of adherence to our rules and traditions, you certainly do manage to find yourself on the wrong side of things quite often."

"I am sorry," Tetsuya apologized, "For all that I like to think I have learned well from you, I just have moments of...a retreat of wisdom, I suppose."

"A retreat of wisdom?" Byakuya said, his smirk returning, "I would be inclined to term it recklessness."

Tetsuya loosed a soft laugh and accepted a warm parting embrace as Byakuya left him. He laid in the bed, his eyes fixed on the door and his heart turbulent.

_It is all in the hands of fate now._

_There is nothing I can do but wait._

_My body feels so strangely full with our child, yet empty of any power at all to change our circumstances._

_Orochi...you must come back to us._

_You gave me your word..._

XXXXXXXXXX

"This is the area where the bodies of the quincies were found," Byakuya said, indicating a large area of scrub brush and boulders at the bottom of the huge cliff, "Tetsuya saw one of the quincy officers holding Orochi's snake form by the tail as it fell. We must assume that if it held on, Orochi may have taken significant damage, perhaps fatal. If not, then he may have been killed by the quincy after they fell or he may have survived and slithered away injured. We don't know if it is a snake or a shinigami form he will be in. But his snakes are black and have either black or red eyes."

The three set out in different directions, each moving slowly and poring over the ground for any sign. Byakuya frowned deeply at the disturbing lack of any sign of the Kuchiki cousin's fate.

_Certainly, I feel that he was here and that his reiatsu did diminish. But there is no sign that shows whether he simply expired because of his wounds, or if he may have left the area. There has to be something..._

_Somewhere..._

His eyes pored over every inch of the hard dirt ground and he scoured the thorny bushes and any holes that the man's snake form could have retreated into. He carried on the search over several miles of parched, cracked ground before returning to confer with his sister and fukutaichou.

"I couldn't find any sign of him," Rukia reported solemnly.

"I didn't find a damned thing either," Renji sighed unhappily, "I know he was a real bastard sometimes, but I got the feeling that he was the reason that Tetsuya survived the quincy attack."

"I felt that as well," Byakuya concurred, "Tetsuya has not told us everything, but some things are clear. It is extremely important that we make every effort to find Orochi if he can be found."

Rukia and Renji nodded in agreement.

"We will continue the search for as long as there is light," Byakuya decided, "We will need to examine the cliff faces to see if he may have caught himself while falling. Tetsuya said that there was mist that interfered with him seeing the whole of what happened when Orochi fell with the quincy officer."

The three separated again, fanning out along the sides of the ravine and using reiatsu footholds to move up and down as they searched. Byakuya rose up to the top of the ravine and followed its length on one side, while Rukia and Renji worked their way along the other side. But as darkness closed in and Byakuya called a halt to their efforts, the three exchanged sad glances, none wanting to admit what all three were thinking.

"I will go and speak to Tetsuya," Byakuya said quietly.

"Taichou," Renji said, touching the noble's shoulder lightly.

Byakuya gave him a curious look.

"Tell Tetsuya that I'm going to look again tomorrow."

"I'm going to look again tomorrow also," Rukia said determinedly.

Byakuya took a breath and nodded.

"I will tell him. Perhaps by tomorrow, he will have a clearance to ride Ikazuchi along with you so that he can see for himself. Just...if he does accompany you, I expect you will watch over him carefully. He is still without his powers."

"We will, Taichou," Renji promised.

"Both of us," Rukia added.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kuchiki Isas gazed with glassy eyes at the photo album in front of him, scanning slowly the pages that traced his sons' growth from children to young adults. Orochi's proud, black eyes looked up at him from the pages, sending mingled throbs of pride and deep pain through him.

_You were the stronger son, he mused inwardly, You, Orochi, were the one I envisioned handing everything over to. From the earliest of your days, that was what you wanted too. You embraced everything that elevated you and you despised anything that would have demeaned you._

_All but that one thing._

_Did you even know that I was aware? I heard Byakuya's accusations after the storming of Itamigiri, but I refused to believe. Because how could a proud son of our subfamily ever look on one of impure blood and see anything but an abomination? Those poor, unfortunate misfits that were never meant to be. They filled the cells of Itamigiri and other hidden prisons like it, and we kept them away from our sons. But we were blind to the way some of our kin were snared by them anyway._

_They are sometimes beautiful...even very powerful from the ability that comes from our pure blood. But all of that is stolen. All of that is only what they took from us. You knew better._

_At least, I thought you did._

_But who is this half-blood for whom you would give up your rightful place in our family? For whom you would die?_

"Isas-sama," a soft voice breathed from the doorway.

Isas looked up and his dead black eyes hardened.

" _You_ ," he growled in a low, accusing voice, "What are you doing here?"

Tetsuya moved forward and knelt quietly at the elder man's feet.

"I came to apologize," he said softly, "I woke and learned that Orochi could not be found. I came to confess that while he was fighting the quincies, he was protecting me...and he was protecting the child I am carrying."

Isas's black eyes glinted dangerously.

"So...you mean to tell me that, not only did you steal beauty and power from my cousin Takao, who unwisely wed your peasant mother, you also lured my pureblood son to your bed, then into death? Is that why you came to apologize, Tetsuya?"

Tetsuya looked up at him through devastated eyes and gave no answer.

The elder Kuchiki's eyes hardened even more and his hand swept downward, striking Tetsuya hard across the face. The younger man cringed and turned his head aside, closing his eyes against the sting.

"Dirty half-blood!" Isas hissed hatefully, "Take that miserable mixed blood mistake and get out of here! I will never acknowledge either one of you!"

"I didn't expect you would," Tetsuya said, somehow keeping his voice calm, despite the pain that still radiated along the flushed side of his face, "I know you hate me. You would hate me whether or not he loved me. But knowing that he loved me hurts you even more. Believe me when I tell you that I did try to resist him. I rejected him when I was freed and I resisted him when we were trapped together. But his will was greater than mine and in the end, I gave in. I will bear the shame and guilt for that forever. I will leave you after this, and I will not trouble you further. Just...know that Orochi's legacy lives on, even if in a body that, like mine, is imperfect. You can send his child away and refuse to acknowledge him or her...but this child will be raised to be a proud member of this family...and should you ever change your mind, you only need to..."

"Get out of here!" Isas snapped, slamming his hands down on the desk in front of him and upsetting the sake he had been drinking, "There is no way that I will ever want to look on what you turned the pure heart and blood of my favored son into! Take your treacherous body and that filth you carry and get out!"

Tetsuya paled visibly, but he stood and backed away slowly.

"Again, Kuchiki Isas," he said penitently, "I am very sorry. I too, wish that Orochi had never laid eyes on me. I blame myself entirely for his death. If the way comes to me to pay for this horrid sin of making him love me, I will."

For a breathless moment longer, Isas's hard eyes glared into his and Tetsuya felt the pain and deadness beneath them. His heart aching and his head pounding, he backed out of the room and retreated to the infirmary, where he laid down in his bed and slowly gave himself over to his tears.

_"You are protecting our child, Tetsuya," Orochi reminded him, curling an arm around him and bringing their lips together, "You know you are not up to the rigors of that level of battle."_

_"And you know that sometimes even those not up to the rigors of battle are forced to fight anyway! The lives of our kin are on the line and we are the only ones who can protect them! If all of us do not give everything, we could lose more than each other, Orochi. You, Arashi and I are all that stands between that army of quincies and the heart of the Kuchiki family! And our child, just like us, must be ready to lay down his or her life to defend that."_

_Orochi's hand curved gently around Tetsuya's pale face and his hardened eyes glared down into the blue depths of his lover's infuriated ones._

_"And what if I agree to this and our child is lost? Will I watch you break apart all over again, Tetsuya? Watch you drown in the rain that would fall endlessly until you disappear into it? I don't want that," Orochi insisted, kissing Tetsuya again and lacing their fingers together, "You must let me brace the leader of the group while you and Arashi destroy the soldats. You must kill all of them, Tetsuya. Otherwise, even when the leader falls, our kin will be overrun."_

_"Orochi!"_

_"Please," Orochi said in an unusually quiet tone, unlike any Tetsuya had ever heard his dark cousin use before, "do as I ask. Protect our kin. Protect our child. I give you my word, Tetsuya. I will come back to you."_

"Y-you promised to come back," Tetsuya sobbed softly, "Where are you, Orochi? What happened to you?"

As the last of the light faded and Byakuya stepped into his room wearing a look of regret, Tetsuya felt the tattered ends of his strength break apart and he sank into his cousin's embrace, crying shamelessly.

Outside the Kuchiki family compound, the clouds thickened and a steady, pounding rain began to fall.


	13. Saying Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kuchiki family prepares to return home after the war...but some things may never be the same...

Tetsuya stood silently in front of the mirror in the dressing area of his chamber, deep within the heart of the Kuchiki evacuation compound, his face very pale, but composed and his body relaxed. He barely heard his attendant's friendly comments and only nodded at appropriate moments without responding aloud, leaving Koji gazing worriedly at his reflection as he dressed his troubled cousin.

"It's good to see the elders have been wise enough to name you and Orochi-san as the greatest protectors of the clan in the war," he said quietly, "None of us would have survived if those quincies had been waiting for us when the Seireitei was brought out of the shadows. We are all very grateful for your bravery, Tetsuya-san."

"Thank you, Koji."

Tetsuya closed his eyes and let out a slow breath.

_It's so strange how even breathing feels so difficult now._

He heard a soft footstep and Koji's voice as he addressed an arriving messenger.

"There is someone to see Tetsuya-san. She says that it is important."

Tetsuya's eyes blinked and opened again.

"Who is it?" he asked, frowning at the messenger.

"It is Maria-sama, Orochi-san's mother!"

Tetsuya stared back at the messenger wordlessly for a moment before responding.

"Would you like me to finish dressing you first?" Koji asked.

Tetsuya glanced down at his body that was clad in only a soft, white yukata.

"No," he said softly, "If she has come here, then it is important. Let her in...and please leave us alone to talk."

"Yes, Tetsuya-san," Koji answered uncertainly.

Tetsuya looked down and gently rubbed the pronounced bump on his abdomen as the attendants left. Flickers of regret tormented him as he remembered how Orochi's hand had caressed that same place, just before they had last taken their leave of each other.

_I swear I will come back to you._

"Tetsuya-san?" queried a woman's voice from behind him.

"Maria-sama," Tetsuya greeted her, meeting her eyes in the dressing mirror as she approached, carrying a wrapped parcel, "Is there news about Orochi?"

Maria's gentle eyes lowered and the hands that held the parcel trembled for a moment.

"No, unfortunately, there is no news about his fate. But...they are still searching. Well, Byakuya's search party is still searching."

A moment of deep silence passed between them and Tetsuya regarded her questioningly.

"You probably think we are horrible, not joining in the search as well, but...Isas has forbid it."

A glimmer of surprise reflected in Tetsuya's blue eyes.

"Maria-sama, you...?"

The woman's lips tightened for a moment, then quivered as she continued.

"I think that Isas is wrong, but we are already reeling. We have word back from home that our estate was destroyed and burned to the ground. Isas and Yuu left this morning with a guard unit to prepare the area for our return. But...even if he had not left, I still would have felt the need to come to you."

"I am sorry about your home being taken," Tetsuya said softly, "And...I am sorry for the loss of your son. But, I don't understand why you are here."

Maria's tired eyes lowered to gaze at the bump his hand rested on.

"I told you. I don't agree with my husband. And although I will not disobey his order to be silent about Orochi, I had to honor my son's wishes."

"What do you mean?" Tetsuya asked softly, "You've had no contact with him since before the war, ne?"

"None," she agreed, "but this parcel was found among his things that were brought from the manor when we evacuated. He made very sure his attendant knew it was to be brought to you in the event of his...loss."

Tetsuya gazed back at Maria wordlessly as she handed him the parcel and watched his shaky hands open it. His breath caught and his hands froze as he spotted a flash of blue silk.

_I wish now that we had that lovely yukata I used to make you wear..._

Tetsuya swallowed hard and his sapphire eyes fought back tears. His fingers grasped the soft material and he studied the perfectly preserved garment in stunned silence.

"That is beautiful," Maria whispered, her voice wavering, "It was obviously made by our house tailor."

She reached out and touched a small patch of embroidery on the inside, just beneath the collar.

"That is our house crest," she went on, blinking back tears, "And this," she said, tracing the pattern on the shoulders, "means that it was worn by family. It is a design woven into the dressing yukatas we wear beneath our clothing. No one outside of our immediate family is ever given a garment with that pattern on the shoulders."

Tetsuya let out a shaky breath.

"But...I was a prisoner...a slave. I only...served Orochi sexually. You must know that."

Maria gave him a sad smile and captured his hand, squeezing it gently.

"Tetsuya-san, if Orochi gave you that garment and had you wear it while he was with you, then he did not think of you as a mere servant."

"No," Tetsuya sighed, closing his eyes, "I was his property."

Maria's hand touched his cheek gently, making his eyes open again and meet hers.

"He wouldn't give this to his slave or a person who was just his property," she corrected him, "These garments are only given to our family and to the husbands and wives we take in."

She took the yukata from his hand and folded back the collar to reveal more of the white patch sewn inside.

"Your name is embroidered here, on the inside. He had this made for you personally," Maria explained, "The inscription beneath..."

"It reads, 'Itamigiri' and gives my prisoner identification number," Tetsuya said numbly, "But why would Orochi...? There has to be some mistake. Back then, he never said to me that he thought of me that way. Maria-sama, I wasn't even the only one he used that way. He used other prisoners for..."

"But he never had a family garment made for them," Maria insisted, "And he went to lengths for this one to find its way back to you, in case he couldn't. Why would my son go to such lengths to make sure it came back to your hands if you were just a slave or a piece of property to him? I think it's clear he meant this to comfort you, if he could not...return to you."

Tetsuya's breath caught, and his control over his emotions shattered. Tears leaked onto his face and he turned his head so that the elder woman wouldn't see.

"It doesn't comfort me," he said bitterly, "I would burn it myself if it meant he would come back. You must know that."

He flinched as Maria's hands removed the white yukata he wore, and she replaced it with the blue one she had brought him.

"I know," she said, letting a hand slide down to rest over the baby's growing reiatsu, "That he would have this made for you, and that you would respond this way to its return is only a sign of the strength of what is between you."

"No...I..."

"Orochi loved you, Tetsuya-san," Maria insisted, squeezing his hand again and kissing him on the cheek, "And this is his way of acknowledging you and your child, even though Isas never will."

Tetsuya breathed slowly as nausea and dizziness swept over him, leaving him barely able to keep his feet.

"Tetsuya-san, you look so pale," Maria said sympathetically, "I will go now and let your attendant take care of you."

"You don't have to leave," Tetsuya assured her, "I am grateful you came. I can't be happy about the circumstances, but...I am glad you do not share your husband's hatred of my kind."

"I never understood their hatred, Tetsuya-san. But then, my dearest friend growing up was a sweet half-blood girl who was my own attendant. Of course, when I married Isas, I was forced to give her up in favor of full blooded subfamily attendants."

"I'm sorry. You must miss your friend. Do you ever see her?"

"Sometimes," Maria said sadly, "When we go to visit my kin. But...I don't know how they fared. They were farther away and went to a different evacuation site. I can only hope they all reached safety."

"I hope so as well. I will be happy to help you search for them...if Isas-sama does not mind."

"Oh, he will be preoccupied with us getting settled back in. I am sure he won't concern himself with who may accompany me."

Tetsuya gave her a gentle smile.

"Then, when we have arrived home, Arashi and I..."

He paused, catching himself.

"W-well, I will help you."

"Where is your Arashi-chan?" Maria asked, frowning, "He wasn't lost in the war, was he?"

"No," Tetsuya reassured her, "He wasn't lost. He is just...going to be gone for awhile. He will return. I know that."

"Good," Maria said, nodding and squeezing his hand a final time, "I must go now, Tetsuya-san. Please do rest and take care of yourself and my grandchild. I will pray that Orochi will return to the two of you soon."

 _That's right_ , Tetsuya remembered suddenly as he watched her leave, _with the conception of the child, he will be outcast, even if he returns. He gave up everything for us._

_Orochi..._

He barely noticed as Koji entered the room and sucked in a surprised breath at the sight of the regal blue yukata he wore.

"Just...place my uniform over this," Tetsuya instructed him.

"Yes, of course, Tetsuya-san," Koji answered, picking up Tetsuya's clothing.

He set each piece in place, making light conversation, but unable to help staring at the telling pattern about the shoulders of the yukata. He blushed as Tetsuya caught his eyes looking and his cousin's hand caught his.

"S-sorry!" he apologized, looking away.

"It's all right," Tetsuya assured him, squeezing his hand, "I know you must have a hundred questions."

"At least!" Koji confessed, smiling back at him, "For so long, Tetsuya-san has spoken of Orochi-san like an enemy. But, now you return from the war and..."

"I carry his child and am marked as one of his own kin," Tetsuya confirmed, "You are not alone in your wonder at all that has happened. I experienced it, from beginning to end, and I can't explain how it is that we've come to this. I can only say that Orochi is hard to understand."

"That is an understatement," Byakuya said from the doorway.

He entered the room and moved closer to where Tetsuya stood. Looking into Tetsuya's eyes, he reopened the front of the younger man's uniform and examined the expensive yukata. Tetsuya flushed brightly.

"Maria-sama came to deliver this. It seems that Orochi saved it from when he had me wear it in the prison."

Byakuya's eyes widened.

"He had you wear this?" he asked in a surprised tone, "Did you understand then, what it...?"

"No. I had no idea," Tetsuya sighed, "But Orochi has always been difficult to figure out. He dressed me in this and did shocking things to me while I wore it. But...although I was always terrified of him, and I never considered what he might be feeling beyond disdain, the truth is, although sometimes he caused me a little pain when we were together, he never actually hurt me. And I am ashamed to say that...if I am honest with myself, my body did always respond to his touch."

"Because he trained it to," Byakuya hissed softly.

"Yes. Part of it was conditioning. I know that. But...there was more to it than that. If it was just that, and nothing more, then all of the years and the therapy I went through should have made me break out of that. And when we were trapped together, I shouldn't have found myself longing for him, even as I fought to resist him. I told you before, he didn't force me into anything."

"He only waited until you were trapped and in conditions not so different from your incarceration. You were alone with him and could not escape him."

"That is true," Tetsuya agreed, "And if Orochi had forced himself on me, I would not be able to raise a question as to what was in his mind. But this..." he said, touching his fingers to the soft pattern around his shoulders, "...this tells me that while Orochi may be both wicked and often cruel, the man loves me, and in a way that he loves no one else. And, for all that I have resisted, I love him too. I am glad to carry his child, even if Orochi's own family will not ever acknowledge us. We don't need their acknowledgement, Byakuya-sama. I feel no sting from their harsh judgment or condemnation."

"Isas knows the child is Orochi's?" Byakuya asked, "Do you know how?"

"I went to him and told him," Tetsuya explained.

Byakuya's eyes closed for a moment in sympathy.

"And he was horrid to you, wasn't he? Did he hurt you?"

"Not really," Tetsuya assured him, "He struck me across the face and told me he would never acknowledge us. And actually, I am relieved. If he had an interest in taking Orochi's and my child..."

"It would have turned into a vicious family conflict," Byakuya finished, "I think it is better this way as well. And you know that you and your child will always be welcome in my house as well as Sadao's."

Tetsuya blushed.

"I still don't know how I will tell my stepfather," he said, shaking his head, "I hope he will forgive me."

"Of course he will," Byakuya said bracingly, "Sadao and Mai did not hold back in loving you like their own, from the beginning. Nothing will take that away."

"Not even when they know I am in love with Orochi?" Tetsuya asked in a haunted tone, "It is asking a lot of them."

"Well, their love for you is far greater than their distaste for that scoundrel you love. They will cope."

Tetsuya smiled.

"Will you?"

Byakuya sighed in resignation.

"I have never tried to take your stubbornness head on, Tetsuya," he said, shaking his head, "I am not about to begin doing that now. Besides, you will need friends on your side."

"I am glad you are one of them, watashi no itoko!" Tetsuya exclaimed, closing the distance between them and hugging Byakuya tightly, "I don't think I could handle losing you. When I thought you were gone, I nearly lost my mind!"

"I am sorry that I frightened you, Tetsuya. The enemy was very strong. We all had to make ourselves stronger to survive."

"I am glad you came back."

"I am glad you are here with me," Byakuya answered, returning his firm embrace.

The two slowly parted and Byakuya closed the front of Tetsuya's yukata, then set his uniform back in place, himself. He tied the sash at the younger man's waist and looked into his eyes warmly.

"Come, it is time for the guards and staff to return to make way for the rest of the family."

The two left the family compound and walked out to where the survey group was gathering. Byakuya's mount stepped out from among the throng of people and Byakuya nodded to Tetsuya.

"You will ride back with me," Byakuya informed his cousin, earning a petulant frown, "Perhaps you would rather walk, but your healers have pleaded with me that if I cannot stop you from returning with the advance guards, to at least keep you off your feet."

"Byakuya-sama..."

"Get on that horse!" Byakuya scolded him sternly.

Tetsuya bit at his lips to hold back from arguing further.

"Perhaps riding will be less of an annoyance if you rode back alongside me," offered a tall, handsome man with dark brown eyes, who sat astride a roan stallion.

Tetsuya froze for a moment, his face paling.

"Yukihana Hiro," he greeted the man, "I didn't know you were here in this compound."

"I was separated from my clan in the fighting," Hiro explained, "I was able to enter the compound after I escaped my home."

"But...if you were here, then you must know..."

"About the child you made with Kuchiki Orochi?" Hiro asked, his eyes still calm and reflective, "Yes. I heard about that...and about Orochi's probable death."

Tetsuya gazed back at the other man silently for a moment.

"You must think I'm awful to do something like that," he concluded, "I am sorry for my unacceptable behavior. I will consider our arrangement off."

"You don't need to do that, although...I will not be angry if you choose not to marry me. Tetsuya, I have been in love before, and have lost a lover. I am not naive about this situation. And...if Orochi does not come back to you, I am willing to marry you and to adopt your child into my family. His son cannot lead my clan, but you and I can certainly bring our own children into the world to do that. Orochi's and your child will have more freedom, I think."

Tetsuya's eye rounded.

"You would...consider taking my hand, knowing I love someone else?" he asked incredulously.

Hiro smiled.

"Well, I know that your heart belongs to him now, and if he returns, you will go back to him. But, if Orochi does not return to you, I am sure you want the best for yourself and your child. I will give you a good home, Tetsuya, a heart that will love you. And I hope that eventually, you will come to love me as well. Arranged marriages are notorious for starting out in less than favorable ways. But we will make the best of what we have, and, that given, I think we can be happy. But, you needn't answer now. Ride back with me. We will attend to our houses and speak of this later, ne?"

Tetsuya climbed onto the back of Byakuya's tall paint stallion and looked back at his cousin questioningly. Byakuya shook his head gently.

"Go on. I will be in the group walking."

"But...?"

"Go on," Byakuya repeated, "I will see you at home."

Tetsuya gave him a quiet nod of acceptance and guided Ikazuchi to the side of Hiro's roan stallion. The two moved forward at a slow, gentle pace as the caravan moved onto the trail and headed home.

"You think he'll be all right?" Rukia asked, looking up at Byakuya curiously.

"Tetsuya will be fine," he assured the young woman, "And with any luck, he will have a gentler fall because Hiro will be there for him."

"Was that true about him losing a lover also?" Rukia asked cautiously.

"Yes. I would say that Hiro understands very well the pain that Tetsuya is experiencing now. It is best to leave this in his hands."

He paused as Rukia moved off to join Renji and the caravan rolled forward.

_At least, I hope this is what is best for him. He has endured too much. All I want is for Tetsuya to be at peace. All I want is for him to be happy and comfortable again._

_Hiro can give him that._

_But will Tetsuya be able to let go?_


End file.
